6 Practices to Support You Launching On Time Every Time

Mar 10

Getting a large group of women to pose for a group photo is a great test of your timing skills. This photo is from our first Women Grow Leadership Summit with about 125 women. It was great training for when we grew the event 10X the next year.

Let’s be clear. It’s easy to predict that a project is going to miss its deadline because the vast majority of projects do. But if you blow deadlines like a corporate cocaine addict in the 80s...here’s some tips on getting your sh*t done on time.

Obsessively track your time (more than your money). I spent years tracking every minute I spent working. I have an inordinately good sense of how long tasks take me because I measured it. I’ve learned that money is an infinite resource (you can make more) but time is finite. Guard your time more than your money.
Know how you sabotage your own success. This is a big blind spot I’m still working on seeing. I knew how I misbehaved when things were hard but I didn’t realize that I had bad habits when things were going well. I used to occasionally wake up in the morning with the sense that something was wrong and blame whatever showed up first (my partner sleeping next to me or my first work meeting of the day). I learned that waking up motivated to make a change isn’t a bad thing but I’ve got to be conscious of what I use that motivation to make happen. My old habit was to pick fights in the morning. So I’m re-channeling that fire into more productive containers. In fact, I woke up today and was going to pick a fight about a project I’m on right now. Instead I meditated for an hour and then wrote this post to remind myself (and hopefully help others) find ways to build instead of burn down.
Make an altar with objects and notes that represent your big desires. Before every strategic work session spend a few minutes meditating in front of your alter. Remind yourself of the big priorities by keeping your working altar close.
Experiment with different ways to present your ideas to collaborators & customers. One of the most sensitive parts of a project is when the folks who have a vision try to get collaborators (and later customers) on board. The Visionary often underestimates how much energy they need to put towards clearing the team’s limiting beliefs or the customer’s objections. Remember that everyone you talk to is coming to this project with their own goals and fears. Try addressing fears as early as possible so they don’t come back to spook you later. Find your balance between wanting to involve everyone and knowing that every person will require time and energy to onboard. This is especially tricky when you’re trying to create a community. You’ve got to have awesome methods to onboard your community and channel their fire or they will burn you up.
Take up a practice where timing really matters. My definition of timing is being aware of what is going on and being able to act at the most auspicious time for all. I learned my timing being raised by musicians and then stage managing musical theatre. Here’s some hobbies to practice your timing: play any instrument, plan a party with a storyline, take an improv comedy class, or moderate on Clubhouse.
Try Gantt charting or working backwards from your goal. A Gantt chart is a project management tool where you assign a number of days to each phase of a project and then it lays the tasks out sequentially on a calendar. It makes it really easy to see things like if the graphic designer is 2 weeks late, you have to cut 2 weeks from somewhere else in the schedule or push the launch back 2 weeks. Asana is my favorite tool for doing this with a big team. For small team projects you can do it manually by working backwards from your goal. For example if I wanted to launch a new Course I would write down:
0 Week: Course Start
1-6 Weeks: Course Sales
7-10 Weeks: Prepare Course Sales Materials
11-16 Weeks: Outline Course, Research Ideal Customers, and ask Guest Speakers
So in this example I can see that I need 16 weeks (or about 4 months) to prepare and launch a Course. Basecamp is my favorite project management tool to do this type of planning.