I live for deadlines. I love the thought that at some defined point in the future, the project that I’m currently working on will be complete, that I will have something tangible to show for all my efforts, and that I can move onto something brand new.
A deadline is wonderfully focussing. For this reason alone I like to give myself personal, ‘mini’-deadlines, as well as the ‘official’ deadlines that are pre-determined by the schedule of the project.
There’s a level of clarity that comes from an imminent deadline. It’s fixed in stone – there’s no moving it around to suit a whim to ‘sack it off’ for the day, for that would then impact on all the future personal and, ultimately, official deadlines that are in the schedule.
This is especially the case when I’ve more than one project on the go… which to be honest is usually the case these days (fingers crossed it stays that way! 🙂 ). There’s just so little wiggle room once I’ve factored in contingency days that not sticking to these mini-deadlines impacts not only on that one project but my personal schedule for all the other projects too.
I find it helps speed me along, too, when I have some sort of reward system for completing a deadline ahead of schedule. If I’ve beaten the clock by a few hours, and unless I’m really up against it with particularly tight future schedules, I will take those few hours and do something I want to do – read a book, go for a walk, watch ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway’ repeats on Dave (man, I love that 3-Headed Broadway Star).
I may, if I’m feeling really motivated, run a few errands, but to be honest that really ain’t no reward or incentive to get finished early, so that’s unusual.
However, if I’ve beaten a deadline by more than a day, all future personal deadlines will get moved forward or re-jigged to fill that time, eliminating ‘dead’ time and allowing me to ‘get ahead of the game‘ with other projects.
Over to you: do you love or hate deadlines? Do they cramp your creative style or are they a fantastic source of motivation? Do you create your own? Or are you more flexible with your schedule?
I have an imminent deadline for tomorrow evening… so I best get on then.