I love the way a deadline helps focus my mind. Having a deadline enables me to plan my time and forces me to prioritize tasks – so I deliver my work to a high standard and on time.

My freelance work requires me to juggle several contracts simultaneously. Without deadlines, it would be virtually impossible to keep track of what needs to be done, and by when. I'd find myself making promises to clients that I couldn’t keep. And that would be very bad for my professional reputation.

Deadlines keep me on track and they allow me to prioritize, plan and perform well. And I'm not alone; anecdotal evidence suggests that most people like to work to clear and unambiguous deadlines. It helps everyone know what's expected of them and smooths the way for more effective teamwork.

Be Alive to the Downsides of Deadlines

The problem is, deadlines need managing. And when multiple deadlines clash, managing them effectively can become problematic. We hear people say they're juggling priorities or spinning plates when they're working on multiple projects at the same time.

Oh yes, we can see them doing their best to keep all their plates spinning, desperately going from one to the other to prevent a plate from smashing to the ground.

In reality, their plates are projects or pieces of work each with a deadline. A plate dropped is a failed project, missed deadline, or damaged reputation. Working like this may be manageable, or even motivational, in the short term. But long term it can become overwhelming and anxiety inducing, and result in poorer performance.

Rather than providing focus, having too many deadlines and unrealistic time frames often leads to no time to focus on the right things at the right time. We have to spend our time multitasking, doing "just enough" on each project to get by while taking extra time to manage everyone's expectations. It exhausts me just to think about it!

How to Make Deadlines Work for You

Love them or hate them, deadlines are here to stay, so it makes sense to make them work for us, not against us. Here's what I've found works for me:

1. Set realistic deadlines and, where possible, challenge/negotiate any that are unrealistic.
2. Plan what tasks need to be done and when, in order to meet the deadline.
3. Allow some contingency for unexpected interruptions or emergencies.
4. Communicate clearly to everyone impacted by your deadline.
5. Don't overcommit or allow others to impose deadlines on you.
6. Work smarter, not harder. Skipping meals, working late, and not taking rest will only work in the very short term.
7. As soon as it looks like you're not going to meet a deadline, take action. Reschedule, replan, renegotiate, and recommunicate.

Promises, Promises

How does it make you feel when someone breaks their promises to you at work? Let down? Upset? Angry? Disappointed? Yep, I hear you!

Failing to keep promises to colleagues or to our boss can seriously damage our workplace relationships. But from time to time, despite our best intentions, we find ourselves unable to keep the promises we've made. This happened to me recently and I really hated letting someone down at the last minute.

With the best of intentions, I'd overcommitted myself – only to find I couldn't possibly deliver on everything I'd promised, when I was expected to. I had no choice but to communicate the issue in the best way I could and explain that I needed more time.

I felt terrible; I beat myself up about it for hours. And I didn't like not being able to deliver on my promise and judged myself harshly as a result. The thing is, the person I'd "let down" didn't feel let down at all. Because I was able to communicate the issue clearly and in a timely manner, and offer a solution, they were very understanding and no harm was done.

I Promised to Learn These Lessons

There are two very important lessons here for me about making and breaking promises at work:

1. We're often our own harshest critics. As long as we act with good intentions and communicate respectfully, people generally understand that life happens and are open to forgiveness. After all, who hasn't missed a deadline or broken a promise at some time or another?
2. Broken promises every now and then are an inevitable part of working life. However, if we regularly break our promises to others, we'll be seen as unprofessional, untrustworthy and unreliable. When we approach our work and our deadlines by being organized, motivated, values-driven, and honest, people will trust that we did the best we could and will be willing to find workable solutions.

You may find the following articles helpful for reflecting on your own deadlines and promises. You'll need to be a Mind Tools Club or Corporate member to see all of the resources in full:

How to Meet a Deadline

Keeping Your Word at Work

Managing Conflicting Priorities

The post Deadlines and Promises – a Mind Tools Coaches' Blog appeared first on Mind Tools.

But in this blog post, we're going to look at 15 great apps that can boost your productivity and, hopefully, make your life that little bit easier!

Time and Project Management Apps

Asana

Free Basic, Premium Starting From $10.99.
Available on Web, iOS and Android.

Asana is just one of the multitude of project management apps that have entered the market in recent years. But it is particularly brilliant at what it does because of the flexibility and simplicity that it offers. The vast number of features means that you can set up projects using a variety of different formats to suit your unique team needs – from simple lists and notes to more complex Kanban Boards and Calendar templates. You can even use it to set up Agile and Scrum workflows. 

It can take some time to get used to the vast range of features the app offers. But, once you do, you'll find it so much easier to track, delegate and prioritize your team's tasks and workflow, all of which can significantly reduce the time you spend on email updates, reports and meetings.  

And if all that’s not enough, the Asana developers have even been tinkering with new "hack" features to make your life even easier. For example, you can snooze your inbox for an hour, add a keyboard shortcut for your favorite feature, or try an Extra Delight – a surprise celebration when you complete a task. 

Focus@Will 

Free Basic, Premium From $69.99.
Available on Web, iOS and Android. 

If you're anything like me, you've probably experienced days in the office when, no matter what you do, you just can't seem to focus. Everywhere you look there's a distraction – sales calls, loud meetings, the printer, your neighbor's terrible choice of music (yes, you can still hear it through their headphones!).

Well, worry no more about such things, because the people behind Focus@Will reckon they've cracked it. The app promises to help you to "focus, reduce distractions, maintain your productivity, and retain information" using a powerful combination of music and neuroscience. In fact, according to the app's developers, it can increase your focus time by up to 400 percent! 

It does this by giving you access to an exclusive library of instrumental music that has been edited and curated to prevent your mind from getting distracted and losing focus. You can choose from several different music channels, or take a short quiz (based on the Big Five Personality Traits Model) that automatically curates a playlist based on your personality type. 

The Premium version of the app is ad-free and also allows you to set session timers, skip tracks, and track your progress.

Rescue Time

Free Lite Version, Premium $6.99 Per Month.
Available on MacOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and Chrome OS.

Want to know where all your time goes in a day? Then Rescue Time may be able to help. It works in the background on your computer, phone and tablet to show you how you spend your time. For example, how much you spend on specific apps, websites or projects. 

This can help you to optimize your time and use it more effectively. It also enables you to pinpoint the times of day when you are most productive, and identify the apps and websites that distract you the most, so that you can avoid them when necessary.  

You can use the free Lite version of the app to track your time across sites and set goals, but the full paid version gives you access to a number of additional perks, such as a "distraction blocker" feature, real-time alerts, and offline time tracking. 

Lightdogs 

Free.
Available on iOS only. 

If you want to try something a little bit different and a little bit "off the wall" to save time, Lightdogs might just be the solution. It uses gamification to prevent you from getting distracted by your phone. 

It works by giving you points, or "joules," for time spent off your phone, which you can then use to build up your own pack of genetically engineered superdogs – otherwise known as Lightdogs. You can use your joules to hatch new pups, evolve them into adults, and breed them to create hybrids. And there's plenty of scope, with over 100 unique specimens for you to collect. 

You can set timers for how long you want to spend away from your phone. But if you open an app before the timer is up you lose your points and have to start again. 

It's a bit of a struggle to get behind the idea of Lightdogs. It seems counterintuitive to stop yourself getting distracted by your phone, only to go back and play a game on your phone. But, ultimately, it does encourage you to spend time away from your device, which should help you to free up more time for work or relaxation.  

Team Management & Decision Making Apps

Vevox 

Free Limited Access or Premium From $83 Per Month.
Available on Web, iOS and Android.

Online voting tool Vevox allows you to create and publish live polls that participants can vote on instantly using their phones or laptops. Live polls are a great way to boost engagement in meetings and presentations, but they also provide a simple and effective way to gather instant feedback from co-workers.

Vevox is easy to use. Users can access a Vevox session via a URL and by entering a unique session ID. You don't need the app to participate – although, if you're a regular user, it's probably a good idea to get it to save yourself some time!  

You can then vote on live polls, ask questions, participate in surveys, and give feedback. What's particularly great about the app is that people can share ideas or comments anonymously, which can encourage them to share their thoughts honestly and openly. You can then organize the feedback you receive into an insight report, which can help you to analyze responses and take more informed actions. 

15Five  

Basic From $7 Per User.
Available on Web, iPhone and Android.

Apps like 15Five aim to remove the need for practices such as annual performance reviews, and replace them with a review system that gives a fuller picture of employee performance. It's based on the 5-15 reporting system, in which reports should take just 15 minutes to write and 5 to review.  

The app collates feedback by encouraging a 360 Degree Feedback system, which allows employees and managers to give praise, flag challenges, and view progress on key objectives. All of this information is added together to provide a rounded view of an employee's quarterly performance. 

Team leaders can also use the app to plan their one-on-ones and integrate OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) into weekly check-ins. Other features include Pulse Checks, which allow you to make quick assessments of how people are feeling, and High Fives and @mentions, which allow colleagues to give praise to their peers. 

Although the app works well on desktop, functionality appears to be limited and occasionally temperamental on mobile devices. However, 15Five is very much a work in progress, with new features and better functionality to be added in the future. It's also worth noting that apps like 15Five will likely become more commonplace in forward-thinking organizations, as businesses continue to digitize their HR processes. Definitely one to watch! 

Stress Management Apps

Calm 

Free Trial, Then $12.99 Per Month.
Available on Web, iOS and Android. 

One of the key trends in the workplace of late has been "wellness" and, in particular, mental wellness. Luckily there are plenty of apps out there designed to help improve your mental health using mindfulness and meditation.  

Calm claims to be the leading app for meditation and mindfulness, with over 50 million downloads to date. And it's true, it does stand out from the crowd – mainly because of the sheer volume of content that it offers. This includes over 100 guided meditations, a huge library of music designed to improve relaxation and focus, and a range of Sleep Stories narrated by famous actors (such as Matthew McConaughey and Stephen Fry) that supposedly improve the quality of your sleep. 

You can try the app free for 30 days on the web or for seven days on your phone. After that, though, you'll have to pay $12.99 per month. This may seem a bit pricey, but if you meditate regularly and are a fan of mindfulness, it's worth it for the wealth and variety of content that Calm has to offer. 

ThinkUp 

Free or Premium at $12.99 Per Month.
Available on iOS and Android.

If you're not a fan of mindfulness or meditation, but you still want to improve your mental health, ThinkUp could be a great alternative. It aims to help you think more positively using affirmations. You can choose from a range of affirmations that suit you, from ones that will help you to quit smoking, to ones that are designed to boost self-esteem or relieve stress.  

Once you've chosen the affirmations that you like, you can record them in your own voice, set them to music and play them back when needed from your own playlist. You do need to speak loudly and clearly when recording your affirmations, as it can be difficult to hear your voice over the music. But, if you prefer, you can switch off the music entirely. 

Repetition is key if you want affirmations to truly work. You can set up daily reminders to listen back to your playlist at a time that suits you. 

While the app is free to download on the iPhone and Android devices, if you want to add more than three affirmations to your list, you'll need to upgrade to a Premium subscription, which costs $12.99 per month.

Communications Skills Apps

Evernote 

Free or Premium From $7.99 Per Month.
Available on Mac, Windows, Web, iOS, and Android. 

Evernote has been around for some time now, but it continues to be one of the most comprehensive note-taking apps on the market. It's an excellent platform to store all your notes in one place.  

Evernote's best feature by far is its wide range of templates. Meeting notes and performance reviews, To-Do Lists, strategy and marketing plans, and even gratitude journal pages – Evernote caters to pretty much all your note-taking needs. You can also use it to capture and store other media that you want to keep, such as presentation slides, PDFs, web pages, and even handwritten notes.  

The Basic free version of the app is perfect for personal use. But, if you use it a lot you may soon find that you run out of storage space (which is limited to 60MB). If this happens you can upgrade to the Premium version for $7.99 per month, which will increase your storage allowance to 10GB. 

If you want to use Evernote within your team, you can also sign up for the Business plan, which is priced at $14.99 per user per month. This also gives you access to a whole range of collaboration tools, such as setting up team projects and workflows, and virtual bulletin boards, among others. 

Blurt 

Free Trial, Then From $14.99 Per Month.
Available on Web Only.

If writing is a key part of your role, or if you simply want to improve your writing skills, Blurt could be a useful tool. It encourages you to focus when you write – for example, by hiding your interface so that you concentrate solely on your words. But it also helps you to improve your own writing style by identifying hard-to-read sentences and suggesting edits.  

Another great feature is Writing Sessions, which allows you to set up writing sessions based on time or word count. You can even commit yourself to weekly word counts or set up email reminders to write.

Blurt is definitely worth a look – at least for the free 15-day free trial. After that you'll need to sign up for a subscription, which starts at $14.99 per month. But if you're a dedicated writer or a budding author it could help you to keep your work on track.

Learning Skills Apps

Blinkist 

Premium at $12.99 Per Month.
Available on Desktop, Web, iOS, Android, and Kindle.

Got some dead time and don't know what to do with it? Why not fill it with a "book in blinks" – a bitesize text or audio version of a top nonfiction title that's been compressed into an easily digestible, 15-minute session.  

You can choose from over 3,000 nonfiction titles, in a range of genres including science, entrepreneurship, personal development, and creativity.  

Although the current library of titles is still relatively small, 40 new titles are added every month. And the app is growing, with 11 million users already signed up! Accessibility is also easy. You can use Blinkist on your phone, your tablet, desktop, and on your Kindle.  

You can sign up for a seven-day free trial, but this only gives you access to one free title each day. If you want unlimited access, you'll need to set up a subscription, which can be paid annually ($79.99), or monthly ($12.99 per month). 

Pocket 

Free or Premium at $4.99 Per Month.
Available on Web, iOS and Android.

If you're anything like me, you probably get sent loads of links to really interesting articles that you mean to read, but somehow you just don't get around to it. Then, when you finally do have some spare time, you've forgotten the article name or lost the link. Well, fear not, because Pocket is here to help.  

You can use it to save articles, videos and stories from any online publication, page or app. So, when you finally do get a minute to yourself, you'll have no problem finding the information you want.  

The app is available across all devices, which means you can save links on your desktop web browser and access them later from your phone or tablet. It's available for free, though there is a Premium version, which is ad-free and includes additional features such as full-text search and premium fonts. This is available for a monthly fee of $4.99, or an annual fee of $44.99. 

Creativity Apps

Simple Mind

Free and Premium Options.
Available on Web, Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and Android. 

Mind Mapping is a great way to record information, identify links between ideas and facts, and enhance creative problem-solving. So, if you're stuck for ideas or want to brainstorm some new concepts, you might like to use Simple Mind. You can use it to design your own Mind Maps all on one page, which you can share across multiple platforms, including Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPad, and Android devices. 

The free version of the app gives you access to a range of Mind Map styles. But, if you really want to get creative, you'll probably need the full version of the app, which is priced from $6.99 on the iPhone App Store (prices vary depending on device type). The full version opens up a whole range of customizable options, and allows you to add other media to your Mind Maps, such as PDFs, images, links, and photos. 

Brainsparker 

Free, With In-App Purchases.
Available on iOS and Android. 

"Disrupt your thinking. Activate your imagination. Unleash your best ideas." These are the three core objectives that underpin creativity app, Brainsparker. It works by providing you with Brainsparker Cards, which act like creativity prompts to get you to start thinking about solutions to problems you might be facing.

The app itself is a great idea, and there's a fun element of interactivity – for instance, you have to shake your device to shuffle your back of Brainsparker cards. The problem is the prompts themselves. These can sometimes be quite funny – "eat chocolate," for instance – but they're sometimes a bit too general to actually be helpful – "join the dots" or "rearrange things," for example. Occasionally, however, there are some real gems that may actually help you to think "outside the box" – "what’s not needed?" for instance, and "what if you could not fail?"  

Although the app is free, it does offer in-app purchases if you want to unlock new packs of Brainsparker cards. These include more targeted creative prompts. For example, there's a Blogger pack for budding writers, and a Positive pack, which provides 150 affirmations to help improve your frame of mind. You can also unlock creativity quotes and additional innovation cards, which cost 99 cents each.  

Which productivity apps do you use? Share your recommendations in the Comments, below!

The post 15 Brilliant Productivity Apps appeared first on Mind Tools.

For some bizarre reason, you decide to go rogue. You're going to keep the sheet music for this particularly challenging piece locked in your briefcase. You're going to play the entire symphony from memory while the rest of the orchestra follows the score.

Now, you're a good musician and you're familiar with the piece. But the likelihood is that at some point you are going to come unstuck. You may hit a wrong note or you may even miss a complete section.

Jeopardize the Performance

You're only one small piece of the orchestra but, if you see this folly through, you may jeopardize the performance. The whole musical process will break down. The conductor will have to stop the orchestra and start again from the beginning. Mahler will turn in his grave!

All this can be avoided, of course, if you decide to literally play safe and to follow the dots on the sheet music.

I use this far-fetched scenario not to illustrate how a musical maverick could mess up Mahler, but to show how missing one small step can threaten a bigger process. And, also how, by following the music – or the plan – you can avoid, or at least minimize, the potential for mistakes.

Missing Key Steps

At this point, I have to hold up my hands and say that I have a pretty good memory. That's surely a good thing, I hear you say. Well, it can be. But, in a work setting, it has been a problem for me, because I have relied on it too much. And there have been a few occasions where it has let me down.

This came to light a few years ago when I had quite a complicated job that involved collating, co-ordinating and publishing articles from co-workers in various parts of the world across different time-zones.

My boss could see that I was struggling to manage the several small projects simultaneously – to keep "all the plates spinning" so to speak. I had got close to missing print deadlines on a couple of occasions, so he invited me into his office for "a chat."

"What's your plan, Ian,"? he asked.

"I don't have one, Martin. I just want to get the job done," I replied.

"Well, I suggest you make a plan, Ian. Otherwise, you won't get the job done."

4-Step Action Plans

He went on to explain what he meant. I didn't realize it at the time, but the information Martin was sharing with me was basically a 4-Step Action Plan.

Action plans are simple ways of keeping on top of small projects. They are designed to stop you missing key steps in a process and, in a worst-case scenario, having to go back to the beginning.

I incorporated Martin's action plan suggestion into my working routine. And, fairly soon, I found that my professional life had improved. I knew what had to be done at a glance. The plan told told me when I needed to delegate, and who to delegate to. Then I used a double-check system to make sure I didn't miss anything, and regularly reviewed how things were progressing. I wasn't trying to play the whole symphony from memory!

Your Experience

Have you any thoughts or advice on how best to use action plans? Do you use them? Do you like them? Have your say by adding your comments in the box below.

And check out our 4-Step Action Plans Infographic.

The post Action Plans: 4 Steps to Strike the Right Note appeared first on Mind Tools.

The last two images are more related than you might think. Scrum is a project management approach designed to increase speed and flexibility through teamwork and incremental working. Its early proponents called it the "rugby approach," because of its emphasis on teams achieving results together, step by step. The fact that the process often includes short huddled meetings helped the name to stick.

Scrum is part of the Agile software development movement, characterized by a lighter-weight, team-centered approach to creating software. The methodology is now widely used outside the world of software development too.

So sports metaphors aside, what exactly is Scrum?

"The main characteristic [of Scrum] is to do things incrementally, build a little bit, see how people like what you've built, and then use the feedback from that to figure out the next thing that you're going to do," explains Scrum and Agile expert Mike Cohn, founder of Mountain Goat Software.

To illustrate how this works in practice, he talks about his dentist. During a recent visit, she asked him what he did for a living.

"I said, 'If you wanted to start a new software product for your dental practice, the traditional way would be to have somebody write a 100- or 200-page document describing everything you need. And then people would go away and build that software, come back in a year, and probably give you something that didn't really match your needs'," he says.

"In an Agile or Scrum approach, what we do is go to that dentist and say, not 'What do you need?' but 'What do you need most? What do you need next?'"

With the general goal far in the distance, the team then builds just one thing to show to the dentist.

"Then she can say, 'No, that’s not what I want,' or, 'Yes, it is.' And then, based on that, we build the second thing and then the third thing," Cohn continues. "So it's about having teams working together with their customer collaboratively and building just a little bit, rather than trying to get the whole thing specified out up-front."

In our Expert Interview, Cohn describes how this way of developing projects is working well in some unexpected environments. There's a website that helps people to plan their weddings using Scrum, for example, and it's also being used effectively in schools. He knows some children who are learning about the pyramids using the Scrum approach.

"The way these nine-year-old kids are doing this is they'll work as a team. One of them will perhaps draw pictures of the pyramids, the other one will prepare a little oral report that they'll give, and things like that," he says, adding, "One of the teachers refers to her students as her 'little Scrum monsters' because they are so interested in working that way."

Scrum may often be fun, fast and motivating, but what effect does it have on the quality of the finished product? Cohn says this approach can lead to very high-quality results, but standards need to be monitored every step of the way. It makes no sense to try to retrofit quality later, as an afterthought.

And as you continually check the quality of your product, you should also check that you're actually building the right thing, Cohn says.

"[We could] go away for a year and build a super-high-quality thing, no bugs, and then hand it over to our customer and the customer says, 'That's not what I want'."

What a lot of wasted time and effort that would be. That's why regular meetings between the development team and the customer, internal or external, are a central part of the Scrum process.

So how much planning is involved in Scrum, bearing in mind the need to stay nimble and be able to switch direction after every meeting? In this clip, from our Expert Interview, Cohn reflects on the nuances of planning a Scrum project.

Listen to the full Expert Interview in the Mind Tools Club ¦ Install Flash Player.

Have you been part of a Scrum or Agile team? How did this approach help the outcome of your project? Join in the discussion below!

The post Join the Scrum appeared first on Mind Tools.

By the time they settled on their response, the company had lost a lot of ground. But we were not alone. Some well-known brands have suffered an even worse fate. Take Borders, formerly one of my favorite bookshops...

Big firms with hierarchical structures find it hard to move at the pace required by today’s business environment. That’s why the message in "Accelerate" by John P. Kotter is so apt. Kotter says that they need a dual operating system – an agile network, running alongside the conventional hierarchy – to stay ahead of the pack.

But this new structure will only work if you can find the right people to staff it. This audio clip, from our review of Accelerate, presents some of Kotter’s advice on the matter.

Listen to the full Book Insight in the Mind Tools Club ¦ Install Flash Player.

Accelerate helps organizations to respond to opportunities quickly, without losing sight of day-to-day demands. If you'd like to learn more, find it in our Book Insight section.

Question: What opportunities or threats does your organization face and could a dual operating system help? Join the discussion below!

The post Make Your Organization Agile appeared first on Mind Tools.