Why do deadlines matter?

Deadlines are the backbone of the creative process.

Past representing the finish line for a project or a piece of work, deadlines mean so much more.

They determine what a piece of work should look like for that specific moment in time.

Deadlines consider who you were at the point of ideation; your feelings at the time and your vision moving forward.

Deadlines consider the context in which you are creating. What is the collective climate saying? What’s popular? What’s not? Are you going against the grain? Or are you emphatically reinforcing social momentum?

These things constantly change, but deadlines enshrine them.

A deadline says that by this time in the future, this piece of work will be real and offering something of value – with all things considered.

For the moment it is published, it will speak to a bigger purpose.

Having no deadlines means a piece of work is not rooted in something of substance.

It is devoid of meaning.

It exists purely because it can, but not for anything more.

“This can go live whenever” 

“I can write this whenever”

“This can be published whenever”

Are all excuses; a form of procrastination; just lazy.

Deadlines create structure and framework.

Deadlines generate creative energy.

Deadlines demand meaning, from you and from the work.