deadlineWriting under a deadline gives me freedom. Deadlines tell me when the project will be finished. They help me plan my time. Instead of just working, working, working with no end point, I can divide the job into smaller segments and schedule each segment so that the whole task is done by the deadline date. Deadlines tell me when I’ll be “free at last!”

I would much rather work with a crisp, clean deadline that have a project on which I could conceivably work until the end of time, trying harder and harder to do perfect work. I’m much happier with a date certain when I can say, “There! That’s the best I can do in this time frame.”

If I don’t have an external deadline for a project, I usually create an internal deadline—a time by which I can say, “That’s all she wrote.” Still, my journey to making friends with deadlines was not exactly a straight line. Here are some of the breadcrumbs, the mini-lessons I had to learn:

MASTER BRAIN FREEZE UNDER DEADLINE (BFUD)
It’s befuddling, but easy to overcome! With BFUD, the negative mental chatter simply takes over temporarily. All the mean, nasty, self-critical inner voices start yelling at the same time:

  • “You’ll never think or write fast enough.”
  • “Quick! Quick! What’s the perfect thing to say?”
  • “C’mon! Out with it!”

These voices can be overwhelming and cumulative. Our brains decide that listening to all this disheartening chatter is simply too much. They go on overload and just switch off. They freeze, muttering some version of, “If this is what it’s like to be awake, let’s go to sleep!”

The creative spark within us sputters. We stare into space, horrified that we’re not producing anything. Meanwhile, time flies by. We become so paralyzed that we can barely recognize that 2 + 2 = 4. Brain Freeze Under Deadline is nothing more than negative mental chatter gone wild. The solution is to take a deep breath and march through these steps:

1. Recognize that BFUD is just what Buddhists call “monkey mind.” The voices are not reality; they are just the fear-based part of our minds on a screaming binge. What they say is almost never true. These are just monkeys, not facts.

2. Stop the runaway monkeys. Don’t let the monkeys’ worry and craziness take over. Clear your mind in whatever way works for you. Stand up and stretch. Pray and throw yourself on the mercy of whatever is divine to you. Walk around the block. Pat the dog or kitty. Break the pattern somehow.

3. Find something to enjoy about the writing that needs to get done and focus on that.

REMEMBER: YOU CAN DO IT FUN, OR YOU CAN DO IT DIRTY 
You can do your project in the Zone—even with a deadline—or you can fight with it and, at best, wrestle it to the ground and “defeat” it. Either way is fine, but you get to choose.

The books for which I contract have to be done by a certain date—whether or not I’m inspired. I can take a little time and energy to call up the Zone and have a ball doing them, or I can rush in thinking, “I don’t really need the Zone this time. I’ve got this one nailed.” When I do that, I usually realize very quickly that I am so, so wrong and that I can’t really do it on my own—or that I won’t have much fun doing it that way.

It is much more pleasant, much quicker, and much more productive to work in the Zone.

How do you make deadlines work for you?

Why I Love Writing Deadlines

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