I’ve lived my whole life in service of deadlines. It’s both a positive and a negative aspect of working in a creative field.
It’s positive in that it gives me something to aim for – a date or time in the future by which someone needs something from me. I’ve made a lot of stuff because of my fear of upsetting someone else by not delivering by a deadline.
The negative side of deadlines is that they create anxiety. What if I don’t make it? What happens on the other side of it? Who will I upset and how upset will they be? The one question I don’t often ask myself enough is, “Who dies?”
It’s not about bloodshed, it’s about a commitment
No one dies on the other side of a deadline these days, at least not the ones we have in creative industries. That wasn’t always true, especially for people in prisons in 1864, but it’s useful to put today’s word in perspective; we’re simply talking about making a commitment.
When I compare the phrases “Making a commitment” and “Hitting a deadline”, the latter feels far more violent. And sure, maybe the violence is intended to invoke anxiety and energy towards the milestone but, to be honest, I don’t think it’s the anxiety of losing one’s life (or whacking it with force) that’s the thing that motivates me to deliver. No, my motivation to get the work done comes from two sources.
Firstly, I want to share it with others because I value the feedback. It’s only through feedback that I learn about what I’ve done well and not so well. When I have that feedback, I can use it in the next thing I make. Over time, it should follow that what I make gets better.
The second motivation (but no less important than the first) is that others depend on me. To produce anything amazing in this world takes more than one person, and we each have a role to play. Sure, maybe my name is the one that ends up on the cover, but the team (and family) that surround the book are also just as responsible for making it. As an author/illustrator, I feel like I’m just doing my part in the team. Just as a goalkeeper’s job of stopping the ball entering their own goal is just as important as the striker’s job of putting the ball in the other net.
In sport, the commitment to one another isn’t a deadline. It’s not a blood pact or some other medieval phrase intended to induce anxiety and fear. Teams huddle. They celebrate. They support and cheer each other on. Maybe the creative industry could learn a lesson or two from others and create an environment of positive energy rather than one fuelled by fear. Maybe it’s time to bury the deadline and start talking about commitments.