Feb 04 2009
How Hard Can it Be to Meet Your Deadlines?
I won’t mention the site or anything, but I am a little disturbed by something this morning. I am on the writers list for a particular site. Writers are asked to claim a certain amount of articles. They claim them, then they have a deadline. This happens each month.
Last month, 70 articles weren’t handed in on time. The editors were bombarded with people asking for more time. This baffles me.
Because of that, the quota for writers is seriously diminished for this month. In other words, the writers who can’t meet deadlines essentially ruined it for everyone else.
So in the title to this post, I asked a question. How hard can it be to meet your deadlines?
My answer? It isn’t hard. If you have all month to work on a 500 word article, why on earth would you need more time? This is poor planning and procrastination. I would be surprised if the majority of those people actually had a good reason. “I’ve been busy” is a poor excuse and one that I hear often. Plan your time better. Don’t reserve the articles or take on the work if you can’t handle it.
So what’s in it for you? Why do you want to meet deadlines?
Writers who meet deadlines get more work. They get repeat work from clients and editors who are happy. Missing a deadline doesn’t make people happy and you may find that it’s getting harder to secure enough work to make a living. Not good.
If you’re one of those writers who constantly skips out on deadlines, you won’t make it as a writer unless you find a way to eliminate deadlines while still making money as a writer.
The good news is that it is easy to reform. If you ARE one of those writers who skips out on deadlines, just start meeting them and you’ll get your respect back. You may even get repeat assignments.
Another possible reason why so many of these writers missed their deadlines? If we put too much to eat on our plates, grandma used to say, “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach.” then took away some of the food on our plates. Could it be that these unprofessional writers are grabbing more than they can do? They may have other assignments, or responsibilities, but put dibs on these articles so no one else takes them. You’ll notice that I called them unprofessional writers.
aw2500
www.permissionsplease.today.com
As student and writer who takes on a lot of responsibility, I can say I know how much I can handle because I regularly see how much I can get accomplished in a day, or a week, or in this case a whole month. I’m used to a heavy workload by now and I can do a 500 page article in an afternoon while standing on my head, making dinner, and chasing after a three year old. Most likely this argument of yours stems from people’s desire to do things. Lots of people wish they could be something they’re not, astronauts and writers are high up on the list of things lots of people wish, and think, they could be if only given the chance; well now they have been given the chance and it would seem they can’t.