Hypothesis
Aggressive deadlines shared publicly, along with a periodical (typically weekly) reporting will act as a forcing and acceleration function. It will force me to take deliberate action, minimize distractions & minutiae, and sprint as fast as possible with the aim of getting as much done as possible before the “clock runs out”.
Overview
Previously I tried to use aggressive deadlines to force me to focus on what matters, and stop procrastinating through being busy doing other “seemingly productive things” (which, in reality, were things I enjoyed doing more, were easier, or were more familiar to me). However, that wasn’t effective. I never took those deadlines seriously, because deep down I know that:
- Since I conceived the deadlines to be unreachable, I didn’t even bother trying to hit them, and instead threw my hands in the air in despair and instead worked on whatever the fuck I wanted (productive procrastination).
- Since the deadlines didn’t have any actual “teeth” (i.e. no forcing mechanism), I didn’t even bother trying to hit them. There was no actual feedback loop forcing me to commit to the work I set out to do, and the deadlines I set. So the idea that I could overcome this lack of accountability with an impotent form of urgency – indeed turned out to be flawed.
That latter point is what this experiment is designed to address.
I already realized that aggressive deadlines by themselves are insufficient. However, it could very well be the case that aggressive deadlines + a commitment device in the form of periodical reporting would unlock the focus and increased performance I am seeking to improve.
Assumptions
- The (perceived) peer pressure of public reporting , combined with the urgency element created by aggressive deadlines will improve focus, commitment, and performance.
- This combined sense of urgency + commitment would force me to be more resourceful, adopting a just-in-time + center of pressure approach to solve problems and resolve bottlenecks in order to achieve the objective.
- Setting a weekly update (with reminders on my calendar) as part of my operating cadence will make me more accountable, and will force me to reckon with the (perceived) social consequences of not making meaningful progress towards my goal. It would also force me to take the deadline seriously, and actually try to get as much done as possible within that timeframe, as opposed to constantly pushing the deadline further because I never took the privately-set deadline seriously to begin with.
- My goal is to set a fixed deadline that I actually take seriously, but not treating it as a binary pass/fail; rather, progress towards the objective becomes the north star. Previously, I would just set an aggressive deadline, continue to push the deadline forward because I had no feedback loop or accountability mechanism that would keep me in check.
- My hypothesis is that by creating a forcing function in the form of a “reporting requirement” to the public – similar to how public companies are required to post their financial reports every quarter (except in this case the regulator isn’t the SEC – it is the perceived peer pressure of having to answer to my readers/stakeholders) – I would be able to sidestep this limitation and actually have my cake and eat it too.
Variables
| Variable | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Aggressive Deadlines | Independent Variable (Input) | Aggressive deadlines assigned publicly to goals and challenges |
| Periodical public reporting | Independent Variable (Input) | Challenges and experiments will be assigned a “reporting frequency” field, along with the existing “Updates section” |
| Performance/output | Dependent Variable (Output) | Since the types of challenges vary, I will use “feel” rather than precision. Not exactly scientifically accurate, but it will have to do in this case. |
| Deadline Dilution | Pairing Indicator (Guardrail) | One of the worst outcomes of using aggressive deadlines that I don’t expect to hit , is that I start treating deadlines as malleable, which would defeat the point entirely. I noticed this happening when I would set aggressive deadlines privately. |
| Deviations from the goal | Pairing Indicator (Guardrail) | I often find myself deviating from my stated goals in favor of “easier” or “familiar” tasks. Once again, I will use intuition rather than hard data to see whether I notice any behavioral change. |
Success Criteria
- Performance/output: Increased performance/output. Since the types of challenges vary, I will use “feel” rather than precision. Not exactly scientifically accurate, but it will have to do in this case.
- No deadline dilution: This part is key. The core premise of this hypothesis is that by publicly reporting my progress, I will be able to sidestep the deadline dilution – which is my tendency to not take deadlines seriously and just continue pushing it willy nilly. My hope is that posting my commitments and my deadlines publicly, I will be more deliberate when setting the deadline (and not set a deadline arbitrarily), and more importantly – it will invoke a sense of urgency, where I race as fast as I can to actually push as many things out the door as fast as possible.
- This way, I’m hoping to unlock the best of both worlds: leverage deadlines as a means to an end (increased performance and higher output), rather than making the deadlines the end themselves.
- Fewer deviations and distractions: This is a second-order effect of the previous point. Previously, I engaged in a sophisticated form of avoidance coping – where I jumped to other more convenient/entertaining tasks (e.g. learning a foreign language), rather than work on the things that matter. This plausible deniability (“I’m not procrastinating! Look! I’m doing something useful!”) was nothing but a (not-so) clever form of procrastination.
- By implementing aggressive deadlines alone (without the public declaration of said deadlines), I noticed that my aversive behavior became even worse, I suppose because I felt like I needed to overcompensate on the fact that I’m not working on what I set out to do, and I will yet again not come close to reaching my deadlines.
- Hopefully with the public reporting piece in place, I will start taking the deadlines more seriously, leveraging the power of public shaming and the ensuing ego blow.
Methods
Pre-Post Analysis (before & after)
Compare my performance/output after committing to public aggressive deadlines
Results & Findings
Conclusion
06/07/2025
I missed last week’s update, so that’s not a positive sign.
I can easily make excuses and blame it on the end of tax season (which threw me off for a few days), but I’ll resist the urge and just own it as a fuck-up. I don’t even want to begin normalizing not providing regular updates. For a forcing function to be effective, it has to be just that – forcing.
Now, back to our success criteria. Last week was indeed a forced distraction – finishing the tax reports and reorganizing my books took more time than I anticipated, so the jury is still out on whether this experiment has any meaningful impact performance-wise. I kinda anticipated this to be the case, which is why I allocated 3 weeks for this experiment. So hopefully in the next two weeks I’ll get a better gauge.
For what its worth, I do feel (again, not exactly using an empirical metric here, but it’ll have to do given the circumstances) guilti-er than I did before not providing a weekly update. But again, I’m withholding judgment for now to allow this experiment to properly run its course. Will update again next week.