How to Meet Deadlines and Remain Sane
The
simplest strategy is to not set deadlines. This is very easy when
you’re writing the book for yourself and plan on self-publishing. It’s
hard to let a deadline drive you crazy when it’s not there in the first
place. Though then you may run into the creeping dread and anxiety that
comes from not having a clear idea of when the project will be done. Or
even if the project will be done. It’s easiest to not set deadlines when
you’re sure that you’re going to finish the thing—which you can only be
sure about if you have experience finishing projects in the past.
A
better model— you can set a longer hard-limit deadline for the end of
the project, and then avoid creating any little ones. For example, you
can say you want to have your book done in a year. When one year passes
after starting the project, you’re done, and you release the best
version of what you have. Then you just let the year proceed without a
lot of micromanaging of your schedule, or draft completion, or any other
smaller deadlines and milestones. Once again, this relies on some
understanding that you’re actually going to be able to finish the
project, and that you’ll work on it throughout that year. Not a huge
problem when you really love the project, the characters, the story, and
you feel compelled to make the thing. And then, as long as you have a
hard end to the project, you can float around inside that time and feel
certain it’ll get done.
This
is my preferred method. I don’t like rigid structures and tight
deadlines. Other people do. Other people perform great by managing
everything down to the week or day or hour. For me, over-managing the
creative process and setting too many deadlines for myself makes me tone
deaf to my natural working rhythms. I will trick myself with my set
schedule, and I will complete every deadline the night before it’s due.
Maybe if I didn’t have that schedule in place I would have completed
that phase of the project three days earlier. But that deadline sticks
in my head, so instead of following my drive to work on that phase
before it’s due, I tell myself “I have until Sunday” and then I swallow
my interest in working on the project then and there, and end up putting
it off till right before midnight on Sunday.
All
of this is a fancy way of saying I like to work on my projects when it
feels right to work on them. As long as I keep the project top-of-mind
and continue to daydream about it—and journal a little bit on it
daily—then I’ll have an accurate feel when I’m ready to make a push and
when I’m not. But if I set a firm schedule, I end up working when the
schedule wants me to and not when I, and the project itself, want to put
in a few hours.
This
is a personal thing. A personality thing. If it sounds like mayhem to
you, then you should have a more ordered way of producing your work. And
if you’ve never finished a project before, then the external stressors
of timelines and deadlines and milestones could be very useful for you.
But if you, like me, don’t fit into that style of working, then know
this—it isn’t necessary. It’s a shame that most people who write books
and articles about how to “get things done” tend to be very organized,
disciplined, hardline, schedule-the-process-to-the-minute sort of
people. Not because they’re necessarily better at getting things done,
but because they’re much more likely to write a book on the subject.
This creates a bias where we think these people have all the answers for
everyone.
They
don’t. Plenty of people get lots of things done while putting only the
lightest reins on themselves. And lots of us both prefer how that
freedom feels, and work
much better without external or internally imposed restraint. By
accepting that about ourselves, we finish more projects, we produce
better work, and we enjoy our lives more, than we would if we tried to
fit a strict system. So I suppose the secret to not losing your mind
over all these deadlines is simple—know yourself, know how you get
things done, and honor that. More often than not that means being easier
on yourself, rather than forcing yourself into a tighter cage.
And
as a passing note—if you’re worried that you won’t finish your project
if you don’t have a jailer on your back, then I’d suggest you might not
like this project (or writing in general) as much as you think you do.
The easiest way to stay sane while completing a project in a reasonable
amount of time is only working on projects that you love, and working on
them doesn’t feel like a burden.
When
you die, your spirit wakes in the north, in the City of the Dead.
There, you wander the cold until one of your living loved ones finds
you, says "Goodbye," and Sends you to the next world.
After her parents die, 12-year-old Sophie refuses to release their spirits. Instead, she resolves to travel to the City of the Dead to bring her mother and father’s spirits back home with her.
Taking the long pilgrimage north with her gruff & distant grandmother—by train, by foot, by boat; over ruined mountains and plains and oceans—Sophie struggles to return what death stole from her. Yet the journey offers her many hard, unexpected lessons—what to hold on to, when to let go, and who she must truly bring back to life.
After her parents die, 12-year-old Sophie refuses to release their spirits. Instead, she resolves to travel to the City of the Dead to bring her mother and father’s spirits back home with her.
Taking the long pilgrimage north with her gruff & distant grandmother—by train, by foot, by boat; over ruined mountains and plains and oceans—Sophie struggles to return what death stole from her. Yet the journey offers her many hard, unexpected lessons—what to hold on to, when to let go, and who she must truly bring back to life.
Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre – Middle Grade
Rating – PG-13
More details about the author
Website http://craigstaufenberg.com/
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