Deadlines Deliver - Are You Ready? Are You Prepared?
Deadlines are extraordinarily focusing things.
A project due by the end of the week, a proposal tomorrow night, a report extended for 24 hours - they all put pressure on the ability to deliver.
That pressure in turn gets the adrenalin going, somehow enabling the brain to pull off remarkable work in limited time.
In fact the brain seems to go into overtime in order to give options and suggestions.
The one thing you must do is record the moment.
Are you ready? Are you prepared? I can't list the number of times I wish I'd had a notebook, or a recorder or a cell phone handy to make sure I wrote down or recorded some idea or solution to a problem that I'd been struggling with.
These things usually happen at the most inopportune times.
You're out to dinner with guests, enjoying tiramisu when the muse strikes.
You don't have a notebook, the napkins are cloth so you don't dare scrawl on them.
In desperation you call over your server who can't find either a pen or paper and your idea is lost - for ever.
You're in bed at quarter to five in the morning.
Isn't it amazing how many answers show up at this time? You marvel at it, lying there with your head on the pillow.
And then you do the stupidest thing.
You go back to sleep.
What's wrong with you? Why wouldn't you turn on your bedside light and write down that idea, immediately.
Right! That can be a comedy routine.
First thing you do in searching for the light is knock over the glass of water you so carefully placed on the table.
Assuming you do find the light where's your pen and notebook.
That's an easy answer.
You kept meaning to put them on the bedside table but you kept forgetting.
Or you didn't want to disturb your partner by turning on the light.
I've done all this.
You'd think as a writer I'd know better.
But I forget.
The worst part is that the idea itself is forgotten and you can't remember it or recreate it and you remember thinking at the time - "this answer is perfect.
" It's only perfect if it's recorded.
Before I forget a reminder about computers.
I have lost material because of some glitch, or I didn't print something out so if something went wrong I could redo it.
Having to recreate something is not easy.
Part of the reason is that you're angry at yourself for failing to record critical information when it was there, ready, in your head and you lose focus.
So let me return to deadlines.
Deadlines get the mind working on issues that confront you or challenge you.
That's just the way it is.
It's the time when the answers you're seeking come through.
So please, if you've got a business proposal due, or a report, or you're writing your first kids' story, keep a pen, pencil, recorder handy.
Otherwise you will almost certainly lose that great idea or solution.
Just make sure that the glass of water on your bedside table is way out of the way!
A project due by the end of the week, a proposal tomorrow night, a report extended for 24 hours - they all put pressure on the ability to deliver.
That pressure in turn gets the adrenalin going, somehow enabling the brain to pull off remarkable work in limited time.
In fact the brain seems to go into overtime in order to give options and suggestions.
The one thing you must do is record the moment.
Are you ready? Are you prepared? I can't list the number of times I wish I'd had a notebook, or a recorder or a cell phone handy to make sure I wrote down or recorded some idea or solution to a problem that I'd been struggling with.
These things usually happen at the most inopportune times.
You're out to dinner with guests, enjoying tiramisu when the muse strikes.
You don't have a notebook, the napkins are cloth so you don't dare scrawl on them.
In desperation you call over your server who can't find either a pen or paper and your idea is lost - for ever.
You're in bed at quarter to five in the morning.
Isn't it amazing how many answers show up at this time? You marvel at it, lying there with your head on the pillow.
And then you do the stupidest thing.
You go back to sleep.
What's wrong with you? Why wouldn't you turn on your bedside light and write down that idea, immediately.
Right! That can be a comedy routine.
First thing you do in searching for the light is knock over the glass of water you so carefully placed on the table.
Assuming you do find the light where's your pen and notebook.
That's an easy answer.
You kept meaning to put them on the bedside table but you kept forgetting.
Or you didn't want to disturb your partner by turning on the light.
I've done all this.
You'd think as a writer I'd know better.
But I forget.
The worst part is that the idea itself is forgotten and you can't remember it or recreate it and you remember thinking at the time - "this answer is perfect.
" It's only perfect if it's recorded.
Before I forget a reminder about computers.
I have lost material because of some glitch, or I didn't print something out so if something went wrong I could redo it.
Having to recreate something is not easy.
Part of the reason is that you're angry at yourself for failing to record critical information when it was there, ready, in your head and you lose focus.
So let me return to deadlines.
Deadlines get the mind working on issues that confront you or challenge you.
That's just the way it is.
It's the time when the answers you're seeking come through.
So please, if you've got a business proposal due, or a report, or you're writing your first kids' story, keep a pen, pencil, recorder handy.
Otherwise you will almost certainly lose that great idea or solution.
Just make sure that the glass of water on your bedside table is way out of the way!