You have heard it before: Haste Makes Waste. When you rush you may not be as thorough as you would like, may make more mistakes and may give the impression that you don't care about quality workmanship.  Still, we have all been in the situation where we are working on a grant application until the final deadline hour. 

It does not have to be like that. A grant application should reflect the highest level of professionalism as it relates to your organization. The application speaks for the entire organization and may be the only representation of you, your work, and the work of our colleagues to the funding agency. It needs to be perfect. 

In reality, the actual grant application development (preparing and submitting the application itself) represents only 20% of the process. The remaining 80% of the work happens behind-the-scenes in research and program planning before you even start on the application package. 

To increase your grant award results, be strategic about your time and include only well-planned projects in grant applications. Resist the temptation to 'build a program/project' while developing the grant application where you are essentially chasing the money. Your time will be better spent on outlining, specifically, what it is that you want to fund.