There’s a spectrum of preparedness and procrastination where I fall somewhere in the middle . . . okay, leaning a little towards the latter.
I found that Rick Riordan quote recently that goes “Deadlines just aren’t real to me until I’m staring one in the face” and I felt seen. I am not, as a rule, someone who misses deadlines. But I am not really the person who turns in her work early either.
I’ve never pulled an all-nighter to finish an essay or project in college . . . my anxiety keeps me in check there. But I did write an alarming amount of my senior thesis in the final month when I had all year to move on it. There were times where I’d write an entire short story in one sitting that needed to be turned in the next day.
Or as you’ve seen play out in my writing updates . . . summer of rewrites . . . three months to get it done, half of it happening in the last three weeks. Today at work I gave a training that I kept blocking on my calendar to prepare and then moving as other things came up for the past month. I finally created it yesterday. But the training went over well, I didn’t feel anxious or rushed. After all, I had it done a whole 24 hours ahead of time.
I think this one of those important ‘know yourself better’ questions (it must be a Gretchen Rubin thing too): how do I work under deadlines? Is procrastination dangerous or helpful? I think my version of procrastination lets my ideas marinate, developing in the background so that when I do sit down to do the work it manifests easily and quickly. It feels efficient. I need that little of time pressure to turn my brain up.
Knowing this, I’m reminding myself that self-imposed deadlines work well when enforced. My writing ones have helped me this year and it tells me that there is more I can translate into my career. We have quarterly goals, for example, and with longer projects, I sometimes struggle to move fast enough early on. I could benefit from setting stricter weekly deadlines to keep me on pace.
If deadlines need to stare me in the face to be real, I think I need to get more of them in my face.
With Love,
Natalie