Contrary to popular belief, I wasn’t always the suave and debonair young man I am today. For a little while (second grade to about senior year in high school) I was a huge dork. I mean, huge. And not one of the cool dorks who collected Pokemon cards and could build a Pokemon stadium with twine, elbow macaroni, and glitter. I was the dork who finished all his homework and studied for the SAT’s on Friday night to free up his weekend to play in his friend’s Pokemon stadium.
A lot of things have changed since then. I restrict my Pokeon creatures to Sundays play dates only. I developed a semblance of a social life. And I learned to use the urgency of a deadline to make doing work more efficient.
Back when I was trying to catch ‘em all, I gave myself too much time. I worked without the benefit of a deadline, which meant I lacked focus. Without the sound of footsteps on my heels, I wouldn’t mind taking a 20 minute break to shine my Charizard Holograph card, then returning it to its air-tight vault before returning to a math problem. Giving myself ample time actually worked against me in a lot or respects.
When there’s a time crunch, however, I’m zeroed in – whether I’m studying for a Shakespeare exam (45 minutes,) researching and writing a story on the latest stem cell research (two days,) or limiting the time it takes me to write a post (30 minutes.) I’m concentrating on what needs to get done immediately, and any glance away from the target means giving up the prize.
Personally, this works for me – but it’s far from bullet proof. Common snags:
- What if you don’t give yourself enough time? The whole idea is to give yourself just enough time to do the best work possible – but when you constantly toe the line, you’re going to step out once or twice. And that might mean reducing the quality of work for a client. But unless you push your limitations, and find out exactly how well you work under stress, you’ll never push yourself to be better, faster, and more effective.
- What if your client gives you an extremely delayed deadline? Take the initiative to shorten it yourself. You can even go so far as to tell the client you’ll deliver on an earlier date. Or if you want the buffer, just jot it down in your planner or enter it into Google Calendar. And make sure you stick to your deadline.
- I’m working on a real long-term project, then what? This is a challenge I still face. When you’re involved with a large project with numerous parts, it’s hard to stay sharp and focused through the entirety of the workday. This goes double when, at the end of the day, you don’t always see tangible results.
The best thing is to break it down into manageable parts, and give yourself deadlines for each section. For me, this means breaking down when certain chapters are due, when I’ll start final edits, or when I’ll begin looking at my production options.
Working on tighter deadlines might cost you a few times before you discover what you can and can’t do. But honing the ability to focus and get work done on a tight deadline is a skill set that’ll pay huge dividends throughout the duration of your career.
Posted by Ming 
