Good advice from Seth Godin: Set a Date

If you haven’t announced a date, you’re not serious.

Pick a date. It can be far in the future. Too far, and we’ll all know that you’re merely stalling. A real date, a date we can live with and a date you can deliver on.

If your project can’t pass this incredibly simple test, it’s not a project.

Deliver whatever it is you say you’re working on on the date you said you would, regardless of what external factors interfere. Deliver it even if you don’t think it’s perfect. You picked the date.

And as a professional, the career-making habit is this: once you set a date, never miss a date.