Deadlines
Oh how I hate deadlines. Aaand I love them. Wait, what? Yes, it is complicated. Currently, I am writing an article and I have a very tight deadline (it is actually today!). This, naturally, stresses me out, but, paradoxically, motivates me at the same time to work more. So what is the point?
Deadlines
Working as an academic always means deadlines. After a while, you get so used to it that you basically structure your whole working day after the most urgent deadlines. What needs to be done now needs to be done now. I already wrote about the book “Getting Things Done”, which actually preaches a more organised approach: Creating next actions in order to evade pressing deadlines.
I actually live by his method, but sometimes things are overwhelming and culminate all at once. This is how it feels for me today, that is why I am writing about deadlines. As mentioned in the beginning, I actually have a deadline for an article TODAY, so why waste time on this post? Because it is important and distraction sometimes is good.
Motivation
Deadlines are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they force you to focus your whole attention to only one urgent thing and let everything else slide. On the other hand, they force your whole attention to only one urgent thing! (see what I did there?) For me having a deadline presents me with the opportunity to let everything else go and finally focus on one thing to finish in time. This is something that I rarely can do.
I have to admit though, that working under pressure sometimes leads to lower quality and that is something that is not good. After submitting my article later today, I will wish for more time to let it all sink in and to go over it one last time. I could have done that by starting and finishing earlier, but I didn’t. That’s how the cookie crumbles.
Conclusion
Writing this blog (and Archaeoinformatics of course) is my way of training myself to think about deadlines in time. Maybe some day I will learn, but this day is obviously not today. So back to work! See you next week.
