Earlier this week I was talking
to the director of a short film that I'm color-grading,
and he asked me how it's going, and
I say
yeah,
you know I'm maybe 65%
of the way done,
but I got to be honest with you.
I'm going slow.
now, as a freelancer who makes my own schedule;
I was kind of hoping at this point
He'd say
he's disappointed
and that he was expecting more,
and I'm holding up the entire project
you know something
to kick me into into action,
but he was actually really chilled out about it
and understanding
damn it.
Because I know myself,
and I know
that
I need a bit of pressure
to avoid procrastinating,
and that's the truth. No matter what the deadline is
I'll usually get most of the work done
in the last 20%
of the time
if not shortly after.
Now that's not ideal,
and for a long time
I envy people
who can spread their time equally
over
a six-week period.
You know doing a little bit of work
every day
until they
calmly arrive at the deadline
after
you know just putting the last finishing touches
on the last day
after a good night's sleep,
but firstly do those people actually
exist?
and also I kind of feel like that energy of I have to do this right now,
and I don't even know
if there's enough time.
I kind of feel like that puts your brain
in a hyper focused mode
that's actually quite good for
creativity.
I don't know I kind of just like putting
that urgency
to work.
Now, like most of my ideas
this has already been captured
far more succinctly
in a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.
You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet;
you have to be in the right mood.
What mood is that?
last minute panic?
And I like to think that maybe
this means that Bill Watson,
the genius behind those comic strips,
was a procrastinator himself,
but the thing is
if we accept
that the last-minute rush
might actually be beneficial,
or wouldn't that just be
yet another excuse to say
yeah,
I'll
I'll do this later.
Yes,
but I also
think/hope
there might be a way to make it work,
and I reckon
it all comes down to this word
"Deadline".
As long as I have a date
that I need something to get finished by,
I will get it done.
And I'm kind of okay with the idea
that rather than steadily
chipping away at it over time
I'm probably just gonna have a lovely rest,
until I literally can't any longer and then like kick into action,
but the key thing I've realized about being a freelancer
setting your own hours
trying to stay motivated
is that the deadlines have to be real.
If I'm the only one who knows about the deadline,
I'm probably not going to stick to it,
and if I haven't signed a contract
with the completion date.
It's not looking good,
so that's what I'm trying to focus my energy
at the moment.
Rather than trying to stop procrastination
I'm just trying to focus on setting
tangible
and frequent deadlines.
A great way to do it is by collaborating.
If I know that someone else is going to be waiting on me
It's a real deadline,
and if I'm legally obligated to do something
because I've signed a piece of paper
that's a real deadline.
You know sometimes
I'll even insist on
adding a completion date
even if the other party are like
no it's cool
you know take your time,
and so I'm pleased to say
that as I was sitting in this coffee shop in London
with Adam the director
and Sam, who also worked on the short film,
that we agreed
on a deadline for the color grading,
March 20th.
Now, have I done any work on it
since that chat
a few days ago?
No,
literally none
but I will make that deadline,
and just to be sure
if you want to follow me on Instagram or Twitter,
the links are there
because I'll be posting
proof
that I do complete the deadline on the 20th,
and if I don't do that
I give you full permission
to have a go at me,
so there you go.
Now, as usual we can have a chat about this in the comments.
You know am I just making excuses
For my procrastination,
or do you think
it actually is possible
to kind of
harness that energy?
I did enjoy last week's comments quite a lot.
Thanks guys,
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