The Art of Business: Battling the Deadline Demons
Sometimes columns mirror real life. Take this column for example. It’s a gorgeous Northern California day and my mind is drifting like a dinghy on the Bay. But I’m inside my office watching the clock tick away, hoping to pull together this article before my deadline arrives.
If you’re like me, deadlines drive you crazy, but they also keep you driven. Chances are, you’ve spent countless nights awake, fretting over an upcoming deadline, even ones that are easy to meet.
The Pressure Cooker
So how can you handle the pressure — real and imagined — of deadlines? And what should you do if it looks like you’re going to miss one? Here are a few tips on handling the dreaded D-word.
- Always meet your deadlines. There’s simply no excuse, short of calamity not to. As Cameron Foote writes in “The Business Side of Creativity“: “You’re very raison d’etre is to do for others what they cannot or will not do for themselves. When you accept an assignment, the client expects you to be competent, professional, and most of all a fanatic about meeting his or her deadlines.”
Treat deadlines with the respect they deserve. Woody Allen once said, “eighty percent of life is just showing up.” You’ll be amazed and how much return business you can earn simply by being on time.
- Negotiate longer lead times. Deadlines are like money, they aren’t easily renegotiated. Even if you think you can meet the proposed deadline with little problem, it’s best to win yourself a little extra time during the initial negotiation.Extra time acts as insurance should a work or personal emergency arise or if the job becomes inexplicably complex. The slack can also come in handy if you need to accommodate a rush job, particularly one with extra dollars attached.Ask for an extra day or week or month, whatever is appropriate to the work you do and the scope of the project. Whenever you start talking to a client about a deadline, think about your kids, significant other, or beloved hobby, and silently ask yourself: Is this deadline going to prevent me from spending time with the people or activities I love? If nothing more, this ploy gives you the incentive to ask for that extra week or two.
- Break up chores into manageable pieces. Perhaps the problem is not the deadline, so much as the sheer size of a project you face. One way to battle this daunting specter is by creating a Gantt chart to break the project into smaller chunks. A Gantt chart is graphical illustration of a schedule that helps to plan, coordinate, and track specific tasks in a project. Gantt charts may be simple versions scribbled by hand or complex automated versions using project management or spreadsheet.Positive things happen once you break down large tasks; you never have to carry the full weight of the project on your shoulders again. You can feel good at the end of each day when you’ve completed the work scheduled for that day. Yes, there’s more to be done, but that work is scheduled for tomorrow and yonder. You won’t always hit the mark, but each day you’ll feel like you’ve done the proper amount of work. Now go play, you’ve earned it.
- Get working. I love being a writer, it’s writing I have trouble with. As obvious as it sounds, there’s nothing quite like a putting the nose to the grindstone to banish the deadline blues. At some point the work will have to be done, so stop surfing the Web (including, lamentably, this site) and get moving.
- Reward yourself. Naturally, you are fully motivated by the very work you’re performing. After all, you became an creative professional because you want to take pride in your profession, be your own boss, and thanks to all the other delusions that got you where you are today. Perhaps you love sky diving, relaxing in your hot tub, pouring yourself a glass of silky merlot, catching an afternoon matinee. These are the just rewards of a good day or week’s work. And when you feel yourself lagging, think about your reward and how good it’s going to feel when you earn it.
- Go steady. Insanity is not a business strategy; it’s a recipe for disaster. If you work like the devil you might be able to meet any deadline you set for yourself. But how about the next deadline and the deadline after that? Being a professional is a marathon not a sprint. Set your deadlines and approach your work with the understanding that you have a life and you need to have the energy and motivation to continue working long after this job is done.The Big Sorry
Invariably, there will come a time when, despite all your best efforts, you’re going to miss a deadline. Hopefully it won’t be the first time you’ve worked with a client or customer, because a missed deadline is no way to start a relationship.Whatever the case, don’t take the missed deadline lightly. You made a promise and now you’re about to break it. That’s bad business. Do everything you can to prevent it or at least shorten the time beyond the deadline. If that means working nights and weekends for a little while, so be it.
As soon as you realize you’ll be missing a deadline, call your client and let him or her know. Apologize, and tell the truth about why. Then immediately enlist your client’s help in finding solutions and work-arounds. What work should be completed first? How can I help mitigate the fallout of the missed deadline? Can we bring in additional resources to accelerate the work? What can we do to ensure this doesn’t happen again? How can I make it up to you?
Your client may not like the situation, but he or she will very much appreciate your taking it darn seriously. In fact, you can turn this misfortune into a customer relation’s victory. Here’s your chance to exhibit your worth by showing your client that you value their time.
Better yet, treat every deadline with profound urgency and you’ll never miss one again.
This article was last modified on July 18, 2023
This article was first published on May 6, 2002
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