Deadlines

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, had a reputation for not taking deadlines seriously. Many others, those who tend to be late for everything, obviously feel the same way.

For others, of course, a deadline is not just something to be respected but also a necessity for getting anything done. If something must be finished by the 12th of the month, they may wait until the 11th to start on it, but then they will work through the night if necessary to complete it on time. A deadline works as an incentive to do something they would otherwise prefer not to do, or at least not do now.

I worked in a business — newspapers — where deadlines were rigid and strictly enforced. Miss too many deadlines and you didn't last long in your job. Unfortunately this often meant that too many stories and too many pages were rushed and not given all the attention they required.

To avoid last-minute pressure and minimize careless errors, my own practice has always been to establish artificial deadlines before the actual deadline. That is, if something is due tomorrow at 10, I will try to finish it by 10 today. I still have the advantage of a deadline forcing me to get the work done without all the last-minute pressure. It also gives me time for a final reread before it is actually due. And I try to be 10 minutes early for appointments.

When a book is under contract, the writer is given a deadline to submit the work. Without such deadlines, most writers would be less driven to finish their work. There is always room for improvement, they feel. Without deadlines, fewer books would be published.

Adams, of course, simply listened for the whoosh. He was successful enough to get away with it.