You Desperately Need Creativity, Focus and Deadlines

I can’t stand quick deadlines, but they ensure that important work is completed in a pinch. On the other hand, if you want to find creativity to thrive with what you do, you need more time. Looming deadlines will suck the life out of creativity if you allow them to, but more time paired with focus allows you to give attention to the creativity in your work. So, what does this mean for those of us who are trying to produce better work? It means that we all desperately need to begin sooner rather than later, and set realistic deadlines. Start earlier and set realistic deadlines to produce your best work. Share on X

It’s a true balancing act. You need room to breathe, you need space to work, and you need the permission to dream, but you need deadlines to ensure that you will actually finish. A practice that I have adopted over the past year is to first come up with a deadline that I feel allows me to produce my best work, and then add a month to the original deadline to provide ample time to review my work. This extra time paired with more focus allows me to communicate exactly what I am trying to say, gives me more time to write better articles for my target audience, and ultimately allows me to produce my very best work. (If you aren’t setting your own deadlines, but need more time to produce your best work, have the courage to talk with your boss about extending the deadline.)

Of course, adding extra time to any deadline does nothing, unless there is increased focus involved. To increase my focus, the past few years have been full of getting rid of the excess, keeping my purpose at the forefront, and becoming more committed to my work. When you adopt these same three things in your own life, I can guarantee that you will produce better work, no matter how long of a deadline you have to work with.

But please stop trying to rush greatness if you can help it. We need your full creativity.