If you’re like me, you have a tendency sometimes to leave your own projects to the last minute… or later.
And you may even find yourself down to the wire with clients’ projects, too. (Although you’re less likely to let those deadlines slip than you are your own.)
If you feel like you’ve gotten into a pattern of always finishing everything with little-to-no-time left to spare, it’s time to take a look at what you’re doing. And to see if there’s a better way to do things.
We all like to think we work better under a deadline. Deadlines are motivating. But if you’re bumping up against a deadline, you’re probably not doing your best quality work. You’re not giving your thoughts time to percolate. You aren’t taking time to consider the best metaphors… the best analogies… the best structure… the best presentation for your core message. You may not even know what the best core message is because you’re just rushing to get the project done.
The way around this is to give yourself more time between when you start things and when you finish. So if it normally takes you a few hours to finish a blog post and you spread that time over two days, trying spreading it over a week instead. If you need a week to complete a landing page, give yourself two.
Here’s the next trick. You actually have to give yourself that time. You can set a deadline for two weeks out. If you don’t start until the deadline is just a week away, then your situation hasn’t changed.
Now, I’m not necessarily saying you should spend more time working on your projects. You’re the only one who can determine if you need to do that. But most writers, myself included, can benefit