Deadlines on my mind...

I have a lot of work coming due in a short period of time. Deadlines are approaching!

On top of that, I have a crew of writers working with me who also have deadlines around the corner.

Somehow, this weekend developed over time into "The Weekend Everything is Due."

I have made contact with most of the people with whom I am working and I think the bulk of them will hit their marks with time to spare. There are a few of the freelance writers, though, who have me a little worried. I have faith they will come through in the end, but there is a possibility for some shortfalls.

If there are failures, it will irritate the hell out of me, because I will be left to pick up all the slack on relatively short notice.

In any case, I have deadlines on my mind. I found an article offering some tips about meeting deadlines as I was looking for some future "hints and help" materials I could provide to some of the newer freelance writers with whom I have been working.

The first sentence, "Not meeting deadlines can spiral into project or career failure," really caught my attention!

The other thing that really resonated with me was this:

"People won't remember how good your excuse was, but they will remember you didn't do whatever you said you would do."

The article, courtesy of Monster, has some nice basic tips, but the thing that bothered me a bit is that it treated missing deadlines as almost an inevitability. It's almost as if missing your required turnaround time is no more than an inconvenience. I think I take the issue more seriously than most.

Five Deadline Busting Tips, from Margo Carmichael Lester