5/7/2013–Deadlines are an effective part of any task.
However, the effective manager schedules their priority first and therefore ensures it is done before spending time anywhere else. In fact, a deadline might delay completion of a priority. Just as setting a minimum wage effectively guarantees that workers will make no more than that, a deadline usually defines when the work is actually submitted—not sooner.
For example, if my priority is to get front of house labor under 4.8% by next month, I’m going to take the rest of this month determining how to do it. Even as an effective manager, I’ll schedule my time such that I achieve 4.8% on the 1st of next month. Conversely, if my priority is simply to get FOH labor under 4.8%, then as a perfectly effective manager I will schedule my time such that this task is completed ASAP. Recognizing that this type of manager might not exist, I believe deadlines should still be given to almost everybody, but it is something worth working toward. That is, to not have to be given a deadline for your priority.
? F N w: Does Becca pass server certification? Yes
QOTW: “We both think you have an unrealistic view of the restaurant business, sometimes.” J.D. + Nick
10/24/2017 review: This is definitely a nuance of task-based work. No clear answer here–for each person, personal preference of how to do work might be strong enough one way or the other to cause “deadline” or “no deadline” to be better for them. I do still feel setting a deadline artificially does encourage working on other things until that deadline is near. Thus, I’d probably argue that the best way to think about it is to not assign deadlines to priorities artificially, but the real value would be to schedule the smaller actions that you need to do leading up to the priority being achieved. In the example I used, I should have scheduled time on various days over the course of several weeks for activities like “calculating what each shift on each day costs” or “forecasting sales for the next week by this Friday”. I then know I’ve got dedicated time to work toward a priority, without discouraging me from finishing early, which setting that deadline would do.