Logan: Making The Cut: Deadlines (Part 1)

(photo: monkeyc.net)

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got deadlines and schedules to meet. And sometimes, like me, you probably miss a few of them.

That can create big problems at work and personally, especially for big things like buying a present for your significant other’s birthday, or the big meeting that the boss is counting on you for. Sometimes you need to meet a deadline just to get paid!

I ran into that one this morning. I forgot to fill out my timesheet for the last pay period on friday. I almost gave the city two weeks of free work!

Sandy likes to call it executive somesuch something or other. It really doesn’t matter what the name for it is, because it can be worked around and mitigated.

I have to set three alarms in order to wake up in the mornings. I set my personal information manager (outlook, evolution, etc..) to warn me in four different places when I have a meeting coming up. I keep a reminder to go eat every day, as my manager has ordered me to take a lunch break every day.

It seems like a lot of work to go to just to do things on a schedule, but in professional life, it’s got to be done. I find that being gently reminded of my obligations is a great way to consistently meet them. Consistently meeting obligations is a great way to get the reputation of an employee who gets the job done right and on time.

People are also more likely to give me what I want when they remember how I pulled them out of the fire with a timely delivery of service. Perception is reality, I don’t want to be perceived as unreliable.

(Make sure to come back for Part 2 of Making the Cut: Deadlines next week!)

Logan posts on Mondays about Aspergers and the workplace.  Catch up on his previous columns here.