Deadlines can be both friend and foe.
On one hand a deadline forces you to finish a project and ship it. Without deadlines some of us would never finish anything. In this case a deadline is your friend.
Other times, and I can be really guilty of this, a deadline can cause stress, aggravation and fear. In my life, this type of deadline is almost always self-imposed. I set a goal for myself, often an unrealistic one, and then stress myself out trying to do the impossible. Actually maybe calling the deadline the foe here is misstated. If the deadline is self imposed and unrealistic, the foe is the one who set it, in other words, I’m my own worst enemy.
How we handle deadlines matters. Often a deadline will feel unrealistic because we have waited too long to begin or because we focus on the whole job that needs to be done, rather than working incrementally, chipping away at the job a little at a time. I hear people say that they work better under pressure all the time. I’m not convinced that’s true. You may feel that, but if I asked your family what you’re like under pressure, would they have the same response?
If you are in the place to set your own deadlines, I highly recommend it. Meeting goals is a wonderful thing and as artists, without a drop dead date, some of us will tweak forever, especially if you have tendencies toward perfectionism. Just make sure the deadline is realistic and attainable.
No one will want to be around you if it isn’t.
