In.Sight - Setting Your Own Deadlines
by Nadine BennyYou can listen to all the contradictory advice in the world and you still won’t “make it”. What to do? Non-advice on finding a happy medium in your art and your mind with Mess Montreal.
In.Sight – Setting Your Own Deadlines
Mess.
I thought it would be an appropriate/ironic time to write a post about setting your own deadlines. This is a pretty straightforward topic, and you know how it works. Everyone has had to hand in homework, a work project, or finish their Christmas shopping in time for Christmas.
But it gets tricky when there’s no one (or no superbly commercial holiday) breathing down your neck, when you have to break yourself in half and balance the project manager and the artist, booking agent, promoter, publisher, or whatever hat you may be wearing at any given time.
Harvey Mackay, one of the most respected and popular business strategists, said this: “A goal is a dream with a deadline”. Simple, but so effective.
Be realistic, and learn as you go. If you try to accomplish anything in one grand leap, you’re very likely to either crash outright into a wall or fail after having exerted a great amount of energy. Success is found in small achievable goals, but they are wasted if you don’t give them deadlines. For example, giving yourself six months to build a plan for media relations is good, but giving yourself one month to research media outlets, then one month to build a list of contacts and refine it with extra research, then two months to collect your information and research and use it to build a realistic plan to communicate the message of your craft… well that seems far more feasible, and you’ll be done in 4 months instead of 6.
And if it ends up taking you a little less or a little more time to achieve a goal you’ve set, you should recognize the discrepancy, but don’t let it get you down. Learn, and use it. Artists these days are forced to be entrepreneurs, something that is very difficult and requires a lot of discipline and willpower and that few people choose as a career path. So get to know yourself, what you’re good at, what takes a little more encouragement for you to get done, and soon you’ll be your own model of entrepreneurial and artistic success!
Also, ‘tis the season to purchase/make a 2008 agenda. It should be your greatest supporter and ally!
- Nadine
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Published on: December 6th, 2007
Terms Used: agenda, business, entrepreneur, IndieBiz, marketing plan, setting goals
About: Nadine Benny
Hello. I play piano, sing, and dance. Those are the artistic manifestations of my self :-)
I’ve worked in non-profit organizations, advertising, artist management, organized several small and not-so-small events, managed booking, PR, and the list goes on. I currently work for an[...]
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i gotta tell you, i got so preemptively excited about getting organized in the new year i bought a 2008 agenda.. about a month and a half ago. i pretty much just look at it longingly these days, but watch out! come January organization won’t know what hit it! (unless i’ve lost it by then..now that i think about it, where is that thing…?)
Posted on December 6th, 2007 at 11:36 am [permalink]
As a hardcore procrastinator, I can always use more time management advice. this past year i was out of school for the first time in a few years and had to learn a whole new kind of self-discipline to work for myself and from home. i had to resist the urge to wake up and immediately go on my computer or to work on my laptop in bed until late. there needs to be some sort of barrier between work and the rest of your life to conserve mental space and create a healthy creative environment. for me, it meant treating my laptop like a desktop computer and using it only on my workdesk when i was at home.
i’ve had conversations with friends about how time and capabilities stretch to fit the boundaries you build. say, if you have 2 weeks to get something done, it takes the 2 weeks. if you give yourself 2 days and make it a priority, it can happen in 2 days. then it’s all about prioritizing among your needs (creative, financial, personal health, community, family…) and like you said, giving reasonable deadlines to structure it all. i think most of us juggle a mixture of external deadlines and personal non-deadlines, so it’s always a case of balancing wants, needs, desires, and not getting caught up in guilt.
i’m a maker of lists and find writing helps relieve the mental load of carrying all your tasks around, so a daytimer or journal is key.
someone once told me that they believe motivation always comes AFTER you start working on a project. this mainly applies to work stuff, but i’ve found it to be pretty true. you’re never going to WANT to write that essay or press release, but just go through the motions of starting and then hey, you’re doing it. you’ll start to get into it and maybe enjoy it a bit or at least get something out of it. it’s usually about finding ways to walk around the mental barrier we set up against hard work.
it’s different with dream schemes, where the idea and excitment come first. but in the same way, the motivation to actually start doing it doesn’t always come naturally. i think it’s actually a creative act to get over the staleness of being stuck behind a pile of work.
i continue to develop my understanding of when and under what circumstances i do my best work, and because i usually work for myself, i can shape my schedule to make it most likely that i won’t procrastinate. it’s always good to experiment with new spaces and people (how about the library at lunch? the local cafe in the early morning? a friend’s place after dinner?) and also, not getting too caught up in novelty spaces and just getting down to it!
Posted on December 6th, 2007 at 5:39 pm [permalink]