Deadlines are FUN!
I was having a conversation with an old schoolmate from TAFE (college) the other day, complaining about a client who just didn't want to write more content for her website even though she was a writer and it was her portfolio site. I mean, a writer should be able to get off their arse and write, shouldn't they?
... Right. Sort of like, as a designer I should be able to finally getting around to redesigning my folio site, shouldn't I?
Um. Yeah.
My friend agreed. She's a budding web designer and hasn't even got a site running yet.
Oops.
So we decided to get off our arses and do what we had to do. And knowing that I only work when deadlines are involved I set us a deadline. We have to have rough designs by 9.00 am Monday April 30. No exact number, but I'm aiming for three. And since this blog (used to) be like a creative journal for me I'm planning on documenting my progress here.
Then I wondered if anyone in the Vox community is like me - wanting to be creative, but getting side-tracked and thinking 'well, I'll do it eventually' and never getting to it. If you're like me and you need a deadline to get anything done, feel free to join in! Whether it's designing a website, creating a sculpture or writing a short story just tell us what you're going to get done and when you're getting it done by and share your progress with us.
Deadlines are FUN!
(Or as Douglas Adams famously said "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.")
Comments
That's the basic idea behind the writing group that I belong to. Talking to a friend one night, we realized that we were more productive when we had a deadline screaming at us. So we invent deadlines and try to reach them, keeping one another honest along the way. Now there's a fairly large group of us . . . shamefully avoiding one another for not meeting our deadlines.
I admit that I'm still a lazy bastard. But I'm a slightly more productive lazy bastard. Which is something, I guess.
(guilt, guilt)
I once formed a collective blog with another writer friend and several participants that we called "the topic project", which had daily, selected ahead of time, one-word "topics" for everybody to write as much as they wanted on. it was a great spur to spin out some rough stuff.
these days there are several factors contributing to my creative sloth: 1) transition from small college town grad student life to larger city 8-5 worker lifestyle-- which, frankly, 9 mos. later I think is a done excuse; 2) getting somewhat sucked dry at work only to come home and want to plant myself in front of a movie with a succession of glasses of wine; 3) basic laziness.
something's gotta change. I don't care if I'm making collage constructions or writing poems or essays or doing drawings or taking myself on photo excursions or designing web sites or books for the hell of it-- I need to start doing more off-the-clock creative work. I can just feel my soul starting to atrophy and the little evil choruses warming up in my head.
I've had writing groups before, and sometimes they worked really well. I did the artist's way with a close friend, and it was a really gorgeous experience. I know I need to expand my local social circle beyond work friends, but haven't made much progress on a great way to do that (meetup.com groups have so far been kind of lame). a little virtual circle with deadlines and collective viewing could be fantastic... but, too, I recognize the need for a certain alchemy of temperaments, so-- well, hi, I'm navelgazer. let me know what you think. absolutely fine either way. :)