When you set a goal or create a vision, it’s helpful to write out a plan, establish a direction, and break things down into smaller steps. While having a vision and setting goals is valuable, assigning a fixed timeline to every step can be inconvenient and, at times, unrealistic.
Timelines are often based on past experience—yours or someone else’s. They assume that what happened before will reflect what will happen now. But when your goal involves something you’ve never done, or something that has never been done, past experience becomes less reliable. You have no idea how long things will take, how complex they may be, or what obstacles might surface along the way. At that point, you’re guessing the timeline, and your lack of knowledge also makes it harder to accurately define each step. There is pressure of waiting for the perfect moment.
Creating timelines is easy during the planning phase because it’s difficult to imagine the roadblocks your project might encounter. Even if you try to anticipate challenges, it’s possible—and likely—that you will miss a few. So when you suddenly realize you’ve spent three-quarters of your planned time on the second step of six, and your original timeline no longer fits, pressure quickly builds. You are overloading yourself with unrealistic expectations. You start doubting whether your goal is worth pursuing, questioning your abilities, and feeling frustrated.
Setting timelines for an entire project creates unnecessary pressure, especially if they’re not grounded in facts. Steps may need to be reorganized, added, or removed entirely, and this naturally affects the timeline. Because of this, rigid start-to-finish timelines are not ideal. You need iterative and flexible planning. A better approach is to divide your project into phases, create smaller timelines, and adjust them as you move forward. Focusing on one step at a time allows you to gain knowledge, improve accuracy, and better predict future timelines—without the pressure.
Once you complete a step, take time to reflect on how it went. What worked well? What could be improved? Carry that knowledge into your next phase. Integrating feedback from previous steps helps you avoid repeating mistakes. Although this process may seem slower at first, it saves significant frustration later on when unexpected issues arise.
Give it a try.
Take care.