Time can be a factor of your success when working toward a goal.

This is especially relevant when you

have professional projects due at specific deadlines.

In this case it's doubly important to be

clear about how you'll go about accomplishing your goals.

You can help yourself out by preparing lots

of details for each task you need to complete.

The more detailed your tasks are, the easier it will

be to predict how much time you'll need for each step.

And as a result, you can then predict how long the entire project will take.

Certain steps may require more effort like reading and writing

as part of research for a blog post or physically

traveling to a certain place like going to a store

to buy building materials for something you're building at home.

By providing as much detail as possible, you can

ensure that small details don't get forgotten along the way.

Or become delays later on in the process.

This can be especially helpful for web projects.

Being able to estimate how much time each step will take, can help you

set mile stones, so you can share progress with your team, boss, or client.

However, time isn't the only variable here.

You should also consider the amount of energy, each task takes.

Some tasks quite intense and require lots of mental and/or physical effort.

At the same time, some tasks are almost mindless and

require very little energy, but they're necessary to make progress.

Now, stacking too many similar tasks on

top of each other can be very demotivating.

Knowing you've got hours and hours of similar tasks to do is tough.

And that's why it's important to create a balance

for yourself by interspersing different kinds of tasks if possible.

After you've taken some Ruby tutorials, for example, go for a walk outside.

After you workout build in time to rest and recharge.

At work break up project meetings with an activity.

Like a project demo.

Or lunch, or both.

Professional projects need milestones and due dates.

But try not to think of deadlines in a negative light.

It's natural to feel anxiety over whether or not you can finish on time, but if

you've done the right consideration as we've outlined

here it shouldn't be a problem at all.

Even if you do face the laze along the way, you

can still adjust if you're aware of all of the details.

A good communication is always a positive

thing, and can help you whenever issues arise.

You certainly wouldn't want to tell your team on

the day a project is due that it will

take two more weeks, especially if they could have

helped you over come the problems along the way.

Monitor your progress by keeping track with your checklist or App.

Even a simple spreadsheet can help you gauge your progress and seeing

how many tasks you've completed will become a nice motivator as well.