A Case for Not Giving Goals Deadlines

When we set goals, we also add deadlines to them — the date we expect to achieve this goal. We expect deadlines to help us prioritise goals, motivate us to drive them to completion quicker and track our progress along the way.

I have found myself repeatedly optimising for meeting deadlines over enjoying the process. I want to meet the goals I set for myself, but I value the learning adventures involved in achieving these goals just as much. This has caused me to extend deadlines repeatedly so I can explore the side quests I discover instead of rushing frantically towards the finish line.

I was subconsciously mulling over removing the deadlines from my goals when I found this post. In that post, the author wrote about doing quests, instead of goals. This excerpt from the note I took while reading the post explains the differences between goals and quests well:

Goals are something you expect to happen in the future. This mental framing allows us to delay doing them. We expect life to become easier before chipping away at the goal. Goals also only capture the end and make every twist of the journey appear as a limitation. What happens on the way to achieving your goal that you did not foresee is considered a challenge.

Quests are different. They focus on the journey. Quests have the mental framing to empower you to enjoy the journey and find the motivation to overcome challenges. Quests could also allow you to overcome the rush to complete the goal and the frustration that accompanies taking longer to achieve them.

This concept of quests resonated with me. It encouraged me to explore a different style of goal setting. Or explore alternatives to contemporary goal setting as I knew it. Dropping deadlines from my goals, and enjoying the adventure of working towards my desired achievements are the biggest changes I intend to make to my process.

I also predict this new style will add more emergency reserves to my goals.

I am approaching these changes as experimental — to be made permanent if they are beneficial compared to my previous habits.