Enter deadline dates right after the task name and/or project name. There, they advise but do not control you, like this:

   Factory Proposal (4/30) – Verify funding (4/23)

The “Verify funding” step has a hard deadline of 4/23 or the final project deadline (4/30) will be missed. Often, you only have a project deadline:

   Valenties Day (2/14) – Decide on gift for Liz

Why Not Start Date, Due Date, Reminder Date in Outlook?

You’re probably wondering why we don’t use Outlook Start Date, Due Date, and Reminders as the smart dates. We can’t. Outlook forces a Due Date on every task with a Start Date, which means Outlook would force every task to have a hard date. That weakness will overwhelm you within weeks.

Don’t even try it.