Set Reasonable Expectations
- Would I be able to do this easily, with the encouragement of a deadline? -> If your answer is yes, then the deadline is probably too easy.
- Could I accomplish this with a medium amount of effort and motivation? -> If your answer is no, or that you would need a lot of effort to finish, scale back.
Cycling hard and easy days ensures your soft deadlines remain meaningful. If you reward an incredibly hard day of work with an equally hard day, your soft deadlines won’t motivate you. Instead, if you put a slower day (or better yet, a day off completely) after a particularly difficult day, it will keep your energy
The basic idea behind schedule calibration is that you train yourself to always do what is on your to-do list, but no more. As you condition this habit of finishing exactly what you’ve planned, your soft-deadlines become more meaningful.
clipped from: www.pickthebrain.com