Why deadlines get my creative juices flowing

I have a love/hate relationship with deadlines. I can't stand them for things like grading, paying bills, and making connection flights, but I love them for the creative process.

When I was younger I thought the creative process didn't need deadlines, but the longer I create the more I see how immature that kind of thinking is. Deadlines are critical to taking the work to the next level.


Raw Talent Only Gets You So Far

I'm a creative person. I always have been. When other kids were watching TV, I was staging and performing plays in my garage.

I used to pretend I was a radio DJ and would "broadcast" from my bedroom. I did whole shows.

I dig drawing, though I suck at it, and photography has always been in my blood. One of my first "real" jobs was as a photographer for the City of Tulsa. I'd snap shots of maintenance crews fixing lines and repairing roads. Exciting stuff.

And, then there has always been the writing.

Writing is my true love, my mistress and wife. I'm lucky to have it. Sure we've been on again, off again but, for the most part, I've been writing creatively all my life. I started writing short stories and poems and eventually worked around to screenplays, ad copy, speeches, and novels.

It was during the ad copy years when I first experienced deadlines, and I respected them for their importance and function. Working under multiple deadlines for multiple projects helped me create stronger concepts and write quicker, tighter, more effective copy. As much as I understood this concept in my day job, I didn't make the connection to the importance of deadlines in my creative work until just a few years ago.

I'm no guru creativity master by any means, but I think creativity stems from two places: the heart and the mind.

Creativity Is Born In The Heart

Creative people have passion. When a student of mine says, "But I'm not creative," it boils my blood. You just identified yourself to me as someone who has no passion, no zest for life. Either that or you don't understand what it means to be creative.

Passion is the fuel for creativity, and you need fuel to be creative. Creating something takes energy, but how much fuel you have depends on your passion for the subject. For some things you've barely got a spark, but for others you could burn down Winterfell.

Creativity Is Shaped In The Mind

Having passion is one part of the creative process. The second part is sculpting that passion. Raw passion is beautiful, but even the wildest of flowers needs pruning to grow stronger. This is where critical thinking, decision-making, and basic mechanics come in. Without the mind, creative pursuits have a hard time developing into anything tangible.

For some people creative pursuits are just chicken soups for the soul or hobbies to pass time or to avoid interaction with family members. Other people want to push their creative projects beyond the comforts of their home and into venues where strangers can enjoy the work, as well. Whichever side of the creative coin you land on, deadlines are critical to producing creative work.

Deadlines Help You Deliver

Even if you don't want to get published, or show, or make it big with a creative pursuit in some way, you still need deadlines to feed your passion. You don't have to have tight deadlines or even hard deadlines, but you still need some kind of deadline to help you finish the piece. Otherwise months, years, or even decades could pass without you actually completing something, and it's the completion of something, the standing back and marveling at your handiwork, that is the fuel for your passion.

Hold Yourself Accountable

Developing your creativity is like exercising your body. You've got to get the heart pumping so that the mind can focus. If you don't workout consistently you get soft, winded, and when you do workout, you hurt muscles you didn't even know you had.

Those who workout consistently can push themselves harder, have more stamina and energy, and aren't nearly as sore the next day.

Setting frequent deadlines and holding yourself accountable to hit those deadlines can help you produce a volume of work, and like Ira Glass said, it's only in producing a volume of work that your work will actually improve.

Give It A Go

Try setting weekly or monthly deadlines for your creative pursuits. Start small with, say, a poem a week or whatever creative activity you enjoy doing. Do this for a month and see if the quality of your poems (or other work) improve. I bet it does.

I also bet that if you upped the ante and tried two poems a week for the next month, the work would improve even more. More than likely you'll also find the work gets easier to produce because your creative muscles are starting to get ripped.

Will every poem/script/photo/sculpture/dance/video you create be amazing works of art? No, but the chances of a few of them being amazing works of art increase when you have more finished pieces to choose from.

The Importance of Being Organized - File Labeling

Every semester I assign massive projects. From things like multiple ad portfolios to website creation and social media campaigns, I put my students through the wringer during my courses. These projects keep me on my toes at all times, but every semester I forget to include one simple instruction.

How to Label Your Files

Labeling your files in a clear manner helps you stay organized, yet every semester I get assignments sent to me with the ole standbys of "ad1.pdf" and "IMG_1119.jpg," which means I have to spend precious time relabeling the files so I can keep better track of whose work what file belongs to among the twenty or so files I received that have all been labeled in the same generic, vague manner.

Sending Files To Yourself

When I send files to myself the labeling is not as important to me because I know what they are. Still, many times I forget what I called the file and waste a lot of time searching for the document. This could be avoided if I had just label the files clearly in the first place.

Labeling files is important so you can easily access them later but only you know what works for you. The important thing is that you relabel files from "photo.jpg" and "IMG_23329" to something more descriptive.

Sending Files To Other People

When I send files to other people the labeling takes a front burner because, depending on what it is, I want the receiver to look at the file.

If I'm sending a resumé I always label the file with my name in it. Ex. MTyler-Resume

Sometimes I put the place I'm sending it to in the file extension so I can track where I've sent it. Ex. MTyler-Resume-Target

It's also a good idea to include the position you're applying for. Ex. MTyler-Resume-Target-Greeter

You don't want overly lengthy titles but you want to distinguish your resumé from all the other resumés that are more than likely labeled "resume.doc" because most people don't pay attention when labeling files.

If I'm sending work-related items I usually label according to the version of the project. Ex. Moosejuice_Mission_v1

If you are working on a project that has multiple levels of revisions it's important to label your files correctly so you can keep track of where you are in the project. Some changes are miniscule and can be overlooked if the file is not labeled properly.

The point is there's nothing wrong with having a lot of versions of file as long as you are able to keep track of the one you are currently working on.  

Time Is the New Money

Clear and organized file labeling saves time. In the future I will be more critical of the way students label their files. It's a small but important part of the communication process that is often overlooked.

Organized file labeling saves both the sender and the receiver time and for students, the more time they can save me while grading their final projects, the happier I will be while grading their final projects. It's a win-win.

My Day Job Doesn't Suck

This time of year is always a stressful time in the mayor's office. The responsibilities I have for my day job escalate to extreme overload as the clock ticks down to the end of another semester at Mooseville University, but Mooseville still has to be managed. It's my civic duty to our great town.

No matter how much I have to do by an increasingly fast-approaching deadline, I still love my day job very much. I'm surrounded by fun, engaged, interesting people who are eager to teach and learn about Mass Communications. Sure there are difficulties every semester, but I enjoy 99% of the things I have to do to earn my keep. The 1% I don't enjoy is grading, which takes up roughly 85% of my time.

Regardless, there's something about preparing for and teaching a course that I enjoy very much. I'm lucky. A lot of people don't have it so good.

A lot of people don't have a day job and many who do hate what they do for a living. They hate it so much it interferes with their nighttime vigilante work. It sucks their energy and dampers their spirits. There's nothing left to give because it took all they had just to drag their ass to work.

In social circles I'm careful not to boast too much about how great my job is, and I'm mindful about complaining about the little irritations, hiccups and annoyances that accompany working in academia. Three out of the five people in the room will have it much worse. When all's said and done, I don't have much to complain about it except that I have small social circles.

No matter what stress this time of year brings, I try to keep it all in perspective. I'm about to wind it down and then I get a break. I plan on working in my garden, grilling out, and watching MOP. I'm also writing some new legislation, and I've got some vacation time coming up. Great Mother, I love the summer.