I remember the first time the idea of deadlines made any kind of impression on me. I was maybe fifteen and a substitute teacher told me a bit about higher education and that a professor had told her to take all the time she needed to finish some project or other (not sure if it was a thesis or what). She told me it had been two years and she'd made no progress on it whatsoever.
The truth of that little story stayed with me…though I can't say I've used it to improve myself much. At fifteen I'd somehow survived by doing basically zero homework or studying. That wouldn't change throughout most of my school career.
But over the years, this truth has hit me every so often. As much as I yearn for more time to develop ideas and less pressure to finish stuff, the reality is that NOTHING gets done without a deadline or some kind of external pressure.
Of course, I'm speaking for myself, here. Maybe some of you out there are driven types who produce results and are motivated from within. I envy you! And hate you.
Add to that the fact that time shoots by more and more quickly as the years go on. In school, I NEVER had the experience of a day or week zipping by the way they do now. There have been some great ideas for little projects that got me excited - I've been shocked to look at my pages and see that 4-5 months have passed since that idea, and I still haven't done it!
I'm glad to have the chance to do this Thursday Blog. Hopefully I'm contributing to the Duck, a place I love, but it's also given me the opportunity to mark the weeks as they rocket past! I'm thankful for the pressure to produce something for Thursday; already it's amounted to a nice little body of…well, I won't say “work”, but a body of…something. Something that wouldn't have existed without the pressure of a deadline.
Posting comics functions the same way. The desire to keep readers interested and coming back applies that pressure.
Funnily enough, this line of thought comes at a VERY busy time with no end in sight, and an update schedule that's been my slowest ever.
Because I've got that external pressure, but haven't created an actual deadline! A schedule! Even a once per week deadline would be enough.
Oh, my…the answer to my problem was with me from the beginning, Toto!
I've gotta post a page next week!
-Banes
DEADLINES - (Banes talks to himself)
Banes at 12:00AM, July 30, 2015
4 likes!
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PaulEberhardt at 3:00PM, Aug. 1, 2015
Don't get me started on deadlines...
KimLuster at 5:48AM, July 31, 2015
I'm at the beach so not thinking about deadlines haha.. I'll contribute when I get back
Ozoneocean at 9:07PM, July 30, 2015
Gunwallace you're still on time and very productive with your music!
Gunwallace at 1:16PM, July 30, 2015
I'm currently operating without any deadlines (while I recover from an illness) and I'm getting nothing done. Possibly less than nothing.
Peipei at 11:22AM, July 30, 2015
I can relate to this news post on so many levels x.x I'm always joking with my partner saying that there should be 30 hours in a day instead of 24 (lol corny!) and that I never have enough time to finish everything on my list. I try to make schedules for myself but I always end up breaking them and just doing more work than usual x.x! I work from home full time so deadlines are super important if we want to keep the bills paid and food on the table! xD
Banes at 7:28AM, July 30, 2015
@usedbooks - That's an excellent approach. Makes a lot of sense! I think it's my recent extra workload that's swallowed up so much of my time and delayed my comic pages. I am still quite driven to do it. Just a big time crunch. Still, the podcasts and stuff with actual deadlines still get done. Viva les deadlines!
Banes at 7:25AM, July 30, 2015
@ozone - The Quackcast is an even better example actually! I didn't mention it because the post was already a bit long and rambly. I'm still amazed that there've been that many episodes! It's pretty sweet!
usedbooks at 4:59AM, July 30, 2015
I work best with a schedule. If I think I won't be able to keep up an update schedule, instead of allowing for missed updates, I change my schedule. If I miss updates frequently, I'll get lazy. Plus, I lose my street cred with readers. ;) I'm pretty good at keeping my own pressure on. I took a course in college that was basically all essay writing. There were deadlines (that the prof sometimes extended) but I set my personal deadlines a week ahead of the class's. It worked well for me. It buffered me for holidays and trips to see my parents, and it gave me rest time between drafts (which is so crucial for good editing). It also meant no one ever had to see my first rough draft. I'm terribly embarrassed by first drafts.
Ozoneocean at 1:20AM, July 30, 2015
Very apt! Deadlines work, even when you set them yourself, if you can. It's fored us to do almost 230 Quackcasts over the years, rarely missing a date- and when we do it's usually external factors.