A day in your workplace can be very overwhelming and frustrating. A long to-do list, overflowing inbox, or to attend endless calls, are all the things that keep you well occupied.
Another annoying thing that happens is when you have to wait for a necessary response from someone. Whether you are anxiously waiting for your boss’s approval on a report or you are waiting for an important piece of information from your colleague for a major project and you are absolutely stuck. You cannot put forward a step without significant pieces you need and just want to greedily reach out for them.
It looks worst when nobody seems to share the same sense of urgency for a project while the deadline is creeping up on you.
Here are few strategies to get people to take your deadline seriously without having to send aggressive emails to follow up, periodically.
Your deadlines have to be clearly obvious
You cannot expect people to respect your deadline until you do not make the date clear to them. In the initial email, itself include the end date. Just explain when exactly you need the work done or the required information handed.
What is in it for them?
Admit it when you lend a hand out to help others on their project, we have an approach that is inevitable that wonders what is in it for me? The same human nature struck the other being as well and they wonder the same. So you need to let the person know what will come out of the deal for them.
Following up
You cannot endlessly follow up till the date of deadline. It will only make you and the person’s work miserable. Instead, make sure you check on the work two or three days prior to the deadline. You don’t even want to cross the deadline and end up saying, “I needed it yesterday”.
Detail the further steps
Even with strong follow-ups and people knowing your deadline some still disregard it. It is irritating but what you can do is let them know what you will do if your work doesn’t get done by time. Will you skip that portion and move on and move ahead with what you have or will you pull in another person.
You will have to share the details about how you plan to handle the situation in the worst case scenario. This will give the kick the person needs to get things done.
