Hi everyone and welcome to my letter D post in the #AtoZChallenge. Today, I was a little uninspired, so I looked to The Year of You for Creatives by Hannah Braime for inspiration. Several of her prompts ask about dealing with deadlines.
Of course, I usually create what I want to create when I want to create it, so I don’t have that many deadlines. I also don’t usually have that many unfinished projects lying around, except for polymer clay pieces waiting to go in the oven. After all, most of my projects can be done within one morning, afternoon or evening.
That being said, even small projects may have deadlines, for example when I want to create something for someone’s birthday or when a staff is leaving. Then, though I do usually start planning for my projects a while in advance, I prefer to finish them close to the deadline.
Deadlines for larger projects are both motivating and stressful for me in my creative process. I sometimes cope with the stress by having a smaller back-up project ready to finish should I not be able to meet my deadline for the larger project. For example, when I wanted to make a necklace with polymer clay beads for a fellow client’s birthday, I started months in advance, but, as the deadline approached, I got stressed. Then, I decided to have store-bought plastic beads for another necklace ready that I could string on a wire should I not be able to finish all my polymer clay beads on time. I finished the project I’d originally intended right on time though.
Most of my current larger projects don’t have deadlines. One though, in particular, does: the mobile I’m creating for the baby my sister is expecting. My sister is due in mid-May, so I don’t really have forever anymore. I tend to procrastinate about creating pieces for that one a lot, even though creating the pieces themselves should be fairly easy. Maybe, like with the necklace for the fellow client’s birthday, I won’t be truly motivated until the baby’s due date comes real close.
With my blogging, too, I don’t usually write my blog posts in advance and today didn’t even have a topic in mind until the actual day the post was due. I usually don’t, but then again normally I can write what I want when I want to. Not so with the A-to-Z. After all, I committed to writing 26 posts in the month of April and at least right now fully intend on completing the challenge. I have many challenges in the past that I gave up on, such as #Write28Days and the 31-day writing challenge (even though I actually paid $10 to participate). With the A-to-Z, the situation, somehow, feels different.
A Multitude of Musings 
I’m hoping to finish the A t Z Challenge, too. Deadlines can be very motivating!
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Agree. Good luck on your AtoZ and thanks for stopping by.
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Astrid – Deadlines are a good thing but I think sometimes hard on creativity. I usually am able to set my deadlines. Enjoy the A to Z month it really is a great way to challenge yourself and meet awesome people.
Discovery
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Thanks for stopping by. Yes, I love the #AtoZChallenge indeed, have been participating for years (or at least trying to).
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I hate deadlines! I hate being under pressure. I am writing my A to Z posts a day in advance, so today I wrote tomorrows post. Lol. X
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I knew someone who was so opposed to deadlines she even refused to use the word. Instead, she called them lifelines. She declared they were there precisely to keep one from something disastrous that might happen if you didn’t reach out to them. Thinking about that always makes me smile.
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That’s such a wonderful thought, I love it! Thank you for sharing.
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That’s good, I’m glad it works for you. I hate pressure too, but I’m also a terrible procrastinator.
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There are deadlines everywhere and most of the time we do tend to meet them.
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Oh, that’s good, I’m glad about that. That being said, I am happy I don’t have a paid job, so I don’t have to meet that many deadlines that are imposed by others.
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Well, I could do better meeting mine thats for certain 🙂
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Oh, I get you, I’m the same. Like I said to Brian, I’m so glad I don’t have a paid job that imposes deadlines onto me.
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A to Z is stressful because of the deadlines. I try to write at least a couple of days posts in advance.
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Yes, I feel the stress too, but I don’t really like writing much in advance. Thanks for sharing your thoughts though.
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You’re welcome
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Deadlines can be either motivating or sheer torture, as deadlines approach, I find myself actively procrastinating by opening dozens of mini projects, doing extra laundry… Whatever it takes to avoid doing this project. Finally, somehow I find the right mood and everything goes smoothly. Weird, isn’t it?
https://steampunkcowunicorn.wordpress.com/2022/04/05/d-is-for-dandelion/
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Thanks for sharing your perspective. It isn’t weird to me. That’s probably what happened to me with the necklace for the fellow client’s birthday.
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So relatable, before sitting to write today´s posts and start reading blogs, I started a new story, hehehe.
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I thrive on deadlines. I’d never get anything done without them. But I have anxiety, so once a deadline is set, I always meet it 😀
The Multicolored Diary
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That’s so interesting that you thrive on deadlines even though you have anxiety. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
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