4 Steps Away From Any Deadline

The first and most important thing to start with your goal/task which I would like to suggest is, caring about your deadline. If you are motivated to achieve deadline, you will give your best for it. If you don’t care about your targeted deadline, obviously you will fail to achieve it in time.

I have gone through many articles & trials and I came up to a conclusion that if you follow 4 steps mentioned below, you can achieve your deadline easily. Yes! You read it right. You can achieve your deadlines easily. I have been following these 4 steps since long and I must say it has helped me and it’s still helping me a lot. So I am sharing my secret with you.

1. Know Your Enemy

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.- Sun Tzu

Whenever you get to know about a task that you have to complete, the first thing to do is know it thoroughly. Ask yourself a question like- What exactly do I need to do? Study every aspect of that task. You should be aware of the issues that you may face while implementing the solution. Read everything related to that topic. I assure you none of the information will go in vain.

Knowing the real enemy is half the battle win- Unknown

2. Recognize Your Weapons

Just because we can’t find a solution it doesn’t mean that there isn’t one.- Andrew Wiles

Once you are aware of your task, it’s time to collect weapons to fight the real ‘battle’. Ask yourself a question like- What are different approaches available to accomplish my task? You will get to know that most of the solutions already exist out there. You don’t necessarily need to follow conventional solutions at all. Most of it are deprecated now. Come up with your own ideas. Don’t behave like a sheep, find your own ways to achieve tasks efficiently. Learn about the implementation of each approach, its pros and its cons. Find out solutions for the issues that you already knew in the first step.

3. Choose The Most Efficient

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. - William James

Now, when you have everything to land in a battlefield, it’s time to take a final decision. You are aware of all the alternatives, it’s pros and cons. It’s time to choose the ‘best’ approach amongst all. While opting for the best approach, ask yourself questions like-

• Is it possible to implement it in a time frame given?
• Will my approach satisfy all my requirements?
• How efficiently does my approach perform?

If the answer is a “Yes!” for the approach you have chosen, go ahead with that approach.

4. Give Your Best Shot

It’s not about making the right choice. It’s about making a choice and making it right.- J. R. Rim

This is the most crucial phase of all. It’s time to prove, you were right. It’s time to show best of your capabilities. It’s time to get your hands dirty. You must have spent 20–30% of the time to reach to this step. Now you have everything to implement your logic. Design logic in your mind. You have an idea of difficulties and it’s appropriate solutions. Let’s pour out all the knowledge you have to complete the task. Be ready for unknown surprises. Work smart and try to optimize each logic that you are about to implement. If you think enough before implementation, you don’t have to optimize your code in future.

Just keep in mind- “Think More, Code Less”

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Yes! It’s so true. I know everyone is looking for the key to be successful, a key to get recognized. Consider you have one, it’s time to take efforts to open up doors to your success. You know how to achieve your deadline.

The world is full of good and bad individuals, to be successful you just need to be better- Rohit Surwase

(Sources- Title Image: https://quotefancy.com)

Originally Published on Medium March 28, 2017.