Deadlines

Fade to Black

Black Friday has come and gone.

Having just shelled out for a new computer I abstained from the maddening rush of consumerism, and I refrained from doing any sort of Black Friday-related discounts on my own works.

Why not take the opportunity to attract customers, you may wonder?

Well, that’s a good question. The Plan was to do a campaign for this week, but life got in the way. i am still struggling to catch up with everything that was put on hold when my computer gave up.

And honestly I don’t feel it was a bad decision anyway. This webpage is still not tweaked for my proper launch, I have a list of to-do’s to work through, and new augments are trickling in at a rate that keeps me busy anyway.

And I probably won’t make it into the Black this year anyway. But that’s okay.

I’ve spent this year investing in myself and my work and even though I’m behind schedule I have still come a long way. So instead of racing toward those black figures I will spend the rest of the year preparing myself and my business for a slow and steady move toward my goals – a fade into black.

But what about you – did you fall for the temptation, Dear Reader? 

And if you did, was it deals on things you needed or stuff you would not have bought otherwise?

Distractions and Deadlines and Deals – Oh my!

“It’s up to you to make everyday as perfect as possible. It’s a question of will and discipline.”
—Karl Lagerfeld

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Deadlines.

Loved, hated, held, broken. By their very nature they are a limit, and in one way or another thus always associated with some form of pressure. For me, they have often been a marker of where my ‘free’ time ends – when a deadline approaches it is time to dig down, dig deep, and finish what I need to do (or, if it’s my own personal deadline, maybe decide that it isn’t that important, and ignore it).

I’m good at distracting myself. There’s always things to do, people to see, sleep to be had. If other people are depending on my work being done at a certain time, my only problem is the limited hours in the final days before the deadline. I get things done, but always wish I would’ve had more time. If the only person affected is me, I can always to it Later™. I’ve tried making deals with myself, but I can always argue my way out of it and talk myself into reaping whatever benefits there are anyway, or ignore whatever punishment I’ve come up with. I’m my own worst motivator.

But today I had something of a revelation about deadlines:

They are everywhere, always – we just do not see them for what they are: The time you have to be at work, be back from your lunch break, when you need to go to bed. Planes, trains and buses with fixed departure times. Travel. Weekends. School. Opening hours.

Life is built up of a multitude of intertwining deadlines, but for most of them we do not see an end, we see a beginning. At each deadline, something new begins or takes over. They are transitions. Opportunities.

I think, from now on, that I shall try to view deadlines not as the last chance to finish something, but as a first chance of beginning something new.