photo credit: alancleaver_2000

Deadlines are often an effective, if stressful motivator, and countdowns, as a reminder of that deadline, work in all kinds of settings. Once, while working for an e-commerce retailer, I tested a variation of the site’s home page during December with and without a “days ’til Christmas” countdown. You can probably guess the outcome: the variation with the countdown left the other variation in the dust.

But sometimes it isn’t even the specifics of a deadline that motivate me; the generalities of the limitations of time work well, too. I don’t know about you, but when I think about having only 8 hours in a typical workday (well, perhaps more like 10 or 11 or sometimes 12 or 13 — I am starting a business, after all), and how many false starts it sometimes takes to get things done, it really pushes me to focus on the important stuff. And at a more macro level, it’s helpful sometimes to remember there are only 52 weeks in a year, so that each week had better be moving me measurably closer to the goals I have for the year.

What are your time-based tricks to force focus and get yourself moving?

Happy Monday!