Remember in school when teachers would assign a massive project?

They would give you the rubik months out in advanced even though we all knew that we would procrastinate until the night before.

But the night before the project was due, you turned into the most productive student in the entire world.

You crammed 12 hours of work into just 3 hours and presented the project the next day as if you had been working on it for months.

That is the power of a due date.

Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

If you want work completed sooner, then shrink the time available for it to be completed.

The key idea here is urgency.

The closer you get to the due date, the more urgency is created around the specific work that needs to be done.

So move up the due date. Increase the urgency.

But that is only half of the equation.

You need consequences.

In school, we had built-in consequences.

Bad grade on the project? Failed the class.

As adults, our consequences are still here but they are too delayed.

You can go 6 months without working out before you start noticing the extra weight around your gut.

You can drink every night until you get into your 50s and your doctor says your liver is failing.

You can put off starting that project until it is too late and you are dependent on your W-2 income and the lifestyle you created.

You need more immediate consequences. And you have to create them.

When I started this newsletter I told 10 of my friends that if they ever checked their inbox on a Wednesday morning and did not see Differentiators then I would pay them $100.

Immediate consequences.

If you are having a hard time committing to your goals then bring in external accountability.

Move up the due date, create consequences for your actions, and invite someone in to keep you accountable.

Go out and move up your due date. Go out and make a difference.