Deadlines, love ‘em or hate ‘em? (Blog carnival)
I love ‘em. How else to get anything done? If it weren’t for deadlines, I probably wouldn’t have posted today, but I have to, because I’ve got a deadline for today’s carnival!
I love deadlines so much, I give them to myself. If I want to submit a piece to a magazine, I give myself a deadline in basecamp to submit it. I set up pre-deadlines to make the piece, photograph it.
In addition to my own deadlines, I also use show deadlines to get myself to make a new piece. I put those in basecamp too. (I have a whole post on how I use basecamp, here.)
Working alone in one’s studio, one has to create a way of working, a way to get pieces made. For me, deadlines are a help. My new thing is to try to create the pre-deadlines so that I’m not working up to the last minute. (you know, like I am right now.)
How about you? Weigh in in the comments.
Read more from the other carnival members here:
Tonya Davidson
Lora Hart
Lorrene Davis
Tamra Gentry
Angela Crispin
2 comments Elaine | My Jewelry/My Studio
I’d be lost without deadlines. I love making up lists and there’s just this satisfaction of crossing them out by pen that is kinda dorky I know but it makes me adhere to deadlines more. While the creative process takes time, there are some designs that just take hours and hours and comes out completely different from how it first started, I always tell myself that if after x number of hours of working on it and I’m still unhappy with the design, it’s time to step back and take a break. Those type of deadlines are the most useful I think because sometimes you get so absorbed in your creation that nothing looks right.
cheers,
ChicInfinity
http://chicinfinity.etsy.com
I use iCal on my Mac in a BIG way to stay on top of not just final deadlines, but the progressive little deadlines that make up a big project. I log all of the projected time I think I will need on a given day or over the course of a week or month to finish a job, I set alarms for things that MUST be done at a certain time, for meetings and other appointments, for reminders of little tasks that must be completed. I also keep a running list in the “to do” section with projects by name and rate them in terms of which has to be done first.
It’s a lifesaver, and when a client asks for new work to be done I always can see at a glance how much of my current work week is booked.