<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/38645a98-56e3-407b-8995-b4d532b368f9/F34D51DD-DA97-43C7-8784-1032A6628AF5/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/motivate-yourself-without-hard-deadlines/" href="http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/motivate-yourself-without-hard-deadlines/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.pickthebrain.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/motivate-yourself-without-hard-deadlines/"><H2>Set Reasonable Expectations</H2></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/motivate-yourself-without-hard-deadlines/"><UL> <li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;">Would I be able to do this easily, with the encouragement of a deadline? -&gt; If your answer is yes, then the deadline is probably too easy.</LI> <li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;">Could I accomplish this with a medium amount of effort and motivation? -&gt; If your answer is no, or that you would need a lot of effort to finish, scale back.</LI> </UL></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/motivate-yourself-without-hard-deadlines/"><H2>Cycle Hard and Easy Days</H2></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/motivate-yourself-without-hard-deadlines/"><P>Cycling hard and easy days ensures your soft deadlines remain meaningful. If you reward an incredibly hard day of work with an equally hard day, your soft deadlines won’t motivate you. Instead, if you put a slower day (or better yet, a day off completely) after a particularly difficult day, it will keep your energy</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/motivate-yourself-without-hard-deadlines/"><H2>Schedule Calibration</H2></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/motivate-yourself-without-hard-deadlines/">The basic idea behind schedule calibration is that you train yourself to always do what is on your to-do list, but no more. As you condition this habit of finishing exactly what you’ve planned, your soft-deadlines become more meaningful.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/F34D51DD-DA97-43C7-8784-1032A6628AF5/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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