Come into my office. Here, lie back on the couch.
The reason you’re here today is because your friends and family members care about you. They see what this addiction is doing to you and they know you need professional help. Now, say it with me, “I’m a deadline addict.”
Deadline addiction is one of the purer forms of procrastination, one to which creative people are particularly vulnerable. We have great imaginations and are comfortable living in our heads. The very skill that allows us to spin ideas into substance can keep us in the thinking, rather than the doing stage of the process. Like other bad habits, it arises slowly over time and like all addictions, it’s a bugger to get free.
Six signs you might be a deadline addict:
- You set reasonable timeframes going into a project, fully expecting to meet these promises and mentally skipping past what should be known problems.
- You prefer to keep a job pristine by thinking about how you will do it instead of getting anything on paper. (Lest you think I’m just talking about writers here, I’m not; designers, programmers and anyone who sets their own schedule is just as prone to the affliction.)
- Life intrudes on the way to the deadline, either because other pressing matters or because of competing work obligations. Although the intrusions are minor, you let them become reasons to delay.
- As the deadline looms, you find your stress level goes up and there is a last minute burst of “git-‘er-done” at all costs. Frenzy results.
- You cut corners or submit less than your best work just to get the surge of relief when the task is finally over.
- Despite your best efforts, this same cycle repeats on a regular basis.
Sound familiar? Well, get comfortable on the couch while we try some cognitive behavioral therapy. Remember, you aren’t a bad person; you just have a bad habit.
Breaking the addiction cycle
The adrenaline rush that comes with an all-night push to get something out the door isn’t helping you. Like the drunk who thinks alcohol makes them funny or the stoner who thinks they play a mean guitar while high, we can convince ourselves that deadline pressures bring out the best in us. But just like our substance dependent friends, when the next morning comes we can easily spot room for improvement. So the first step is realizing the behavior doesn’t work as well as we think.
The next step is to split off manageable portions of the larger task so they can fit into smaller slices of time. One of the tricks we fool ourselves with is imagining we need X hours to accomplish Y and if we can’t get the entire time there is no reason to start at all. Bollocks.
Any project can be divided up and some portion can be done in a very short period. For writers, it may be bookmarking useful links for later; a designer might brainstorm ideas and do some trial color schemes; a programmer might dig up useful code snippets or write up an overall program flow – there are plenty of smaller chunks worth doing. Change your behavior by finding some “doing” that can bring your mind to the task.
While we are on the divide and conquer theme, use these smaller bites to set artificial deadlines. If you can fool your inner procrastinator into believing something has to be done you can key into your existing deadline addiction even when no actual end date looms. Do this by setting time limits and rewards – “I won’t be able to watch Fringe/have dinner/see that movie until I get this knocked out. With practice, you can recreate that same time pressure you already rely on.
Finally, one warning. If you can’t address your deadline addiction, it will bite you in the butt. Under time pressure, some otherwise fixable problem will arise that absolutely prevents you from accomplishing that last minute task. Maybe you need some information from a client, or a critical web site is down, or there’s a glitch on your computer. Any one of these can tempt you to make up an excuse to cover for a deadline that has slipped by. The first lie you tell to conceal addiction starts you on the road to ruin.
Take it from a recovering deadline addict – writer’s block is just another way of saying lazy.
Average user rating from: 4 user(s)
I Hear You
| Overall rating: | 5.0 |
Reviewed by kdmccartyMarch 12, 2011
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I'm not a deadline junkie, but my husband and business partner is. The problem is that I need to proof/edit his work before it goes to his clients (he does the same for me). That sticks me with a case of "last minutitis" even though I hate it. So, I give him fake deadlines to meet that leave me at least 24-48 hours to do my bit before a project is due. Of course, he knows I do this which makes the technique somewhat less effective.
| Overall rating: | 5.0 |
Reviewed by LucySpencerFebruary 28, 2011
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I need SO much therapy...this article may have just booted me out of da land of denial. Thanks, Bill!
| Overall rating: | 5.0 |
Reviewed by SuzanneFebruary 27, 2011
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I got 5 out of 6! And what's worse, all the negative things you mentioned about deadline addiction only come to me at the last minute while I'm working like a maniac. "OMG, what if the computer suddenly dies on me? What was that person's name again? Uh-oh... there's a file missing".
Then you swear you'll NEVER make yourself go through that again... until the next time comes around.
As Homer Simpson once said: "D'oh!"
Hi, my name is Maria and I am a recovering deadline addict
| Overall rating: | 5.0 |
Reviewed by adLinguasFebruary 24, 2011
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I had so much fun reading this, Bill!
I wish my friends and family members would plan such an intervention for me. The problem is, this is a secretive addiction!
I've tried fooling myself with make-believe little deadlines, but I always catch myself thinking, "Yeah, right!" :D
