No Later Than

A tiny productivity idea that stuck with me this week: Instead of setting an exact time to do X, you put a “no later than” deadline.

For instance, if you usually get to work by 9 am, and you know it’s feasible, instead of telling yourself that you need to be there at 9 am and feel stressed out as you watch the minutes tick down, you tell yourself that you need to be there no later than 9:30 am. You’ll mostly hit that 9 am mark because you know it’s when you usually get to work. And sometimes you’ll get there early. And sometimes you’ll get there between 9 am and 9:30 am, and you’ll be okay because you hit the goal — no later than 9:30 am.

The idea is to give yourself some leeway to the goal so you don’t get stressed out about the goal itself vs. doing the thing that takes you to the goal. You can set goals like, “I’m going to write more than two pages today,” if you can generally achieve five pages. Everything you do over those two pages becomes extra. Reaching the goal becomes less stressful, but the same amount of work gets done.

What do you think?