Deadlines

I love deadlines.  I like the wooshing sound they make as they fly by.
          -- Douglas Adams

We all have things we have to get done by a certain date -- projects at work, home improvements, Christmas gift shopping, taxes.  Deadlines are hard for most folks, but I think they're just a bit harder for creatives.

Creatives are, by their very nature, flighty people.  We don't do it on purpose -- we just get caught up more easily in what we're doing than most other folks.  Ask an accountant when the last time was he got so engrossed in his work that he lost track of time and the answer's likely to be, "Never."  Ask a creative, and it's probably been some time in very recent memory.

For most of us, our work is also our play.  When I compose, it's very real, serious work ... but to create that real, serious work, I have to play, be free, make connections, and generally be relaxed and easy-going and -- sad to say -- flighty.  I never know what I'm going to get accomplished any time I sit down to compose because no two hours are the same.  One hour I might sit down and come up with no ideas, so instead I change two notes in a four-minute-long piece.  The next hour, inspiration might hit me upside the head, so I might add seventy measures to a piece while scarcely stopping for breath.

Where this really hurts us is with our deadlines (just the word in and of itself conjures up terror -- deadlines?  Ominous...).  Depending on the type of creative you are, deadlines might or might not be an issue.  When I was first starting out composing, I had no external deadlines; any deadline was self-imposed, and more often than not, I set no deadlines, but simply wrote what and when I felt like it.

Things have changed for me now.  I have publishers who ask for a certain type of piece by a certain date.  I've got a commission or two with firm deadlines, which if I don't finish in time, loses me money.  A publisher will get me a proof of a piece and ask for corrections within two weeks. 

It's not just me.  Other composers I know have a backlog of commissions, all with due dates staring them in the face.  One friend of mine is down to just about two weeks left to write the forward to a book.  As good as their donuts are, let me tell you, the world doesn't run on Dunkin' -- it runs on deadlines.

Deadlines inspire fear and dread and inertia.  They make us want to do nothing because we're terrified we won't get it done in time ... or that we will get it done in time, but it will be junk.  How is a creative to overcome this dread?

• Realize that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step -- When you start a project with a deadline, you don't have to finish it in one sitting; you just need to begin.  Slow and steady isn't just the best way to win the race; most times, it's the only way.
• Make the deadline public -- Tell a friend, a spouse, a child, a colleague -- or put it out on your blog.  The fact that other people know of the deadline is a strong incentive to get the project done on time.  More often than not, those folks you tell will provide encouragement along the way.  The thought of disappointing them and having to fess up if you miss the deadline is often enough to get the job done.
• Have a reward ready -- Promise yourself a nice meal, a trip to the movies, a spa day -- but only after you've finished the project.  Let the reward match the project -- if the project is a two-minute handbell piece, a trip to the ice cream parlor might be just the thing; if it's a 700-page fiction novel, then a day at the spa followed by an enormous meal might be more along the right lines.

Like it or not, deadlines are just something we have to live with.  But, with a little change in how we look at them and a couple of tricks, we can set ourselves up so that we no longer experience that joy of hearing them woosh by.