It doesn’t matter whether you are writing as a career or for your own pleasure, deadlines are important. Without one your work has no direction but, sadly that one word strikes fear into the heart of many writers and it can cause them to slow down to the extent that they end up falling behind schedule.

Follow these tips to keeping yourself on schedule so deadlines become a breeze:

Deadlines aren’t a big deal. One of the main reasons why deadlines seem so scary is that many writers make too much out of them. They turn them into the stuff nightmares are made of and, really, they’re not that hard. Keep positive; get it into your head that the sooner you meet that deadline, the sooner you can move on.

Create a half-way deadline. Today is Monday. Your deadline is Saturday for producing five chapters of your book. Yes, you can put it off but you know, deep down, that come Friday night, you will be in panic mode, crashing on the keys to get the work done. Why? Break your deadline down into smaller pieces? Three chapters written by Wednesday and the remaining two by Saturday. You never know, you may get so into it that you finish ahead of schedule.

Get your chores done. It happens every time. You have this deadline but all of a sudden, your utility room needs to be cleaned. You know the deadline is coming up so get all your chores done ahead of time. Not only will it stop you interrupting yourself with unnecessary jobs, a tidy workspace will focus your mind.

Prioritize your tasks. Everyone does this differently so you need to be honest with yourself. Assess your work habits; if you need time to ease into work, do the simple tasks first and then move onto the bigger ones. If you prefer to get stuck straight in then do it. Get the worst out of the way earlier rather than leaving it to fester.

Use Post-its. They were invented for a reason so use them! Stick colorful Post-it notes up where you will see them with your deadline dates and tasks that need to be done.

Take a Break. You can’t work for hours without one so build in time every hour to get up and walk away. Give your eyes and your hands a rest as well as your brain. You are not wasting time; your productivity levels will actually be higher!

Care about your work. If you don’t give a hoot about your work then a deadline is nothing to you. Even if your work gives you no choice, sit and think about why it is so important. Recognize that others may well be depending on you to meet your deadlines and you might find that getting the work done is easier.

Whatever you do, never take on more than you can manage and always do your very best at each task. What your best is will differ from day to day but by putting your heart and soul into a job, that deadline will be a breeze to meet.