The Road Less Timed: Goals Vs Timelines

Obesity and weight is a common issue in today’s society. To lose a lb of fat you need to create a calorie deficit of 3500 calories.

To lose 10lbs you then need to create a 35000 calorie deficit.

There is some more complicated maths around the basal metabolic rate, but essentially for a person who normally eats 2500 calories a day, to lose 10lbs in 3 weeks they could reduce their calories to 1000 a day.

Theoretically that works, but in reality it would be a horrible decision with many negative health outcomes and it shows the importance of creating realistic timelines.

Realistic Timelines

Yes, someone could survive on 1000 calories but they wouldn’t be thriving. They would be sleeping terribly, struggling to maintain muscle and physical performance. Mentally they would be sluggish.

3 weeks is a very challenging timeframe to lose the weight.

If you changed it to 6 weeks then the calorie deficit would go from over 1500 to 833.

If that went to 10 weeks, the calorie deficit would only be 500 per day.

Goals Vs Timelines

Losing 10lbs is a great clear and objective goal. The challenge is when you don’t put in a realistic and achievable timeline then the goal becomes absurd.

This timeframe can make or break the success of the project. Unrealistic timeline can shatter the morale of the team because they have to do the work

Not only, do they have to do the work, they know they are being assessed on being able to hit the timeline and so they will do their best to get there.

Like a person starving themselves to make a weight, they might hit the goal, but at what cost to themselves and the team.

Great Timelines

A timeline that is too short is ridiculous, to your team, to the client, to any stakeholder, but so is an overly long timeline.

3 weeks is crazy to lose 10lbs. 30 weeks is also crazy because you can do it successfully in much less time.

To set your team up for success to delight the client and their stakeholders, the timeline needs to be long enough to complete but short enough to be ruthless of what goes into the project.