My dad told me 'always underpromise and overdeliver' and I finally saw it work today.

I told my boss I'd have a report done by Friday and got it to him Wednesday morning instead. He was so surprised he gave me a bonus on the spot lol. Has anyone else had a simple piece of advice like that pay off big time?

4 comments

4 Comments

dakota4152mo ago

Totally get where @avery_flores17 is coming from but I don't think it's that deep man. Like yeah sometimes you can't beat a deadline but that's life not some grand philosophy failure. The whole point is just not making promises you can't keep, not setting the bar so low you trip over it. I've used this trick plenty of times and it's always worked out fine, nothing catastrophic happened when I missed one.

quinna892mo agoTop Commenter

Nothing catastrophic happened when I missed one" bro that's the whole point. It's not about some life or death thing, it's about not creating drama over a deadline you set yourself. People act like missing a date is some moral failure when really it's just like, who cares? You said you'd do something in a week, you did it in ten days, the world didn't end. It's not that deep.

angela_harris22d ago

Wait, has anyone actually read that study about how deadlines are basically made up social constructs anyway? I swear there was some research that showed people who set loose deadlines actually get more done in the long run because they're not stressed out about being perfect. Like, my friend's a project manager and she said her team started hitting targets way more often once she stopped treating every deadline like a life sentence. So yeah, you're right, missing a self-set date by a few days is basically a non-event. It's not like you promised to pay someone back or deliver an organ, it's just "I'll have that form done by Friday" and you get it Monday. Big whoop.

avery_flores172mo ago

Always underpromise and overdeliver"? More like always undersell yourself and set low expectations. What happens when you finally can't beat the deadline?