Deadlines – How To Deal With Urgency

Just Curious – Are deadlines good or bad for the design and construction industries?

In this episode Fred and Barbara inspired by Episode 776 of This American Life, I Work Better on a Deadline, seek to understand the role of deadlines in the design and construction industries, exploring the pros and cons of working with deadlines as well as providing some insights on deadline management.

Five ways to think about deadlines for architects, contractors, and owners:

1. Break down the big deadline into manageable smaller deadlines.
2. Schedule decisions required to make each deadline.
3. Schedule and collect decision-ready information as required to meet deadlines – don’t solve problems too early or  quickly if you do not have sufficient information
4. Create a sense of urgency early on in a project so that decisions and deadlines can be managed thoughtfully – don’t procrastinate
5. Keep project values and principles up front to stay focused on why deadlines are important – For example, your project deadline may be part of a larger owner deadline.

Resources:  Episode 776 of This American Life, I Work Better on a Deadline https://www.thisamericanlife.org/776/transcript 

Listen to this episode HERE