My personal deadlines? I rarely set them. I’ll either get something done in my own time, or I won’t. Setting deadlines for myself is ridiculous. If another person is involved, it is a very serious thing with me and I don’t agree to them easily unless they are absolutely necessary and, in order to ensure timely completion, I will usually negotiate the widest window as possible.
A deadline is a promise. Promises to others are very important to me. It is my word, a rep I protect like gold. If I meet someone who breaks promises, whether made casually or not, my estimation is immediately lowered and mentally I classify them as “unreliable.” I discount everything they say from then on and consider them a bagatelle as a human being. It’s a huge flag with me and I am rarely wrong that these people almost always turn out to be of weak, unreliable character—they invariably don’t take themselves or other people seriously. I do not need people like that in my life.
My policy—and I strongly advise this to others—is to not make promises easily. This comes from the experience of a man who, in his younger years, has broken promises to his great embarrassment and shame. They may be forgotten by others, but I still remember and am haunted that these promises can come back and bite me in the ass. Paying for the sins of my youth.
A person’s word, ultimately, is all they have. And I don’t agree to deadlines without giving them very serious thought. When I do agree to them, money is usually involved.