How to Convert Your “Missed Deadlines” into “Guaranteed Results”

A few weeks ago one of my clients asked how he could stop missing deadlines and get more predictable results with his business. Now I’ve worked with this client for a couple of months and I had a pretty good idea of why he wasn’t able to achieve his goals on time. I asked him, “Jason, can you please tell me your strategy for predictable failures?”

I think he was a little shocked at first but then I explained. “Well, you have gotten very good at making sure you don’t get the results you want, right? So the good news is that when you have a strategy that gets you predictable results – even if its the wrong results – then you can flip it into a positive strategy!

So here is what I did with Jason.

First I asked him to explain step by step how exactly he made sure he screwed up a plan and didn’t get good results.

Here was his strategy for missed deadlines:

1. When I decide to start the project, establish a due date without looking at calendar or other commitments so it’s completely unrealistic.

2. Set up myself up so that you I multiple important projects going at the same time.

3. Keep the project plan in my head and wake up stressing every day about it.

4. Tell myself I’m going to work on the project then answer other peoples urgent requests via email and phone and don’t get anything done.

5. Guarantee I won’t finish anything by starting lots of tasks simultaneously.

When you start to understand the thoughts, behaviors and choices you make to get bad results you can “rewire” your process to get great results.

Then we took take Jason’s poor results strategy and flipped it into one that could deliver guaranteed results. For instance, if we did the opposite of each action from above, Jason would:

1. When starting a project, always look at calendar and other commitments before deciding on deadline.

2. Be realistic about other projects and commitments so I’m not over-committing and under-performing.

3. Spend an hour to map out all the steps in the project and transfer them to my calendar (or project planning system.)

4. Book chunks of time where I turn off phones and email and do NOTHING but work on my project.

5. Be diligent with my focus and complete one task at a time.

Successful outcomes happen when proven steps are used together. Most of us fall into a trap of habits that deliver poor results – missed deadlines, mediocre sales, stressful launches, etc. By “flipping” those bad habits into their opposite actions you can start to achieve improved results!

What will you try this on? Got a bad habit of missing deadlines that you want to improve? Share them below…