Here’s something I learned in ad school:

Deadlines are so necessary.

If they weren’t so necessary nothing would ever get done. Seriously. Deadlines are golden.

Maybe I’m just too much of a “Creative”, or maybe I’m just too creative, either way I like to create. But creating is different than just thinking of stuff. If you never finish anything you never actually make anything, do anything, or create anything. And if you don’t create how can you be creative?

Actually, if you don’t create, you aren’t creative. But if you need a kick in the pants, ass, or anywhere else that will get you finishing the work, a deadline is a pretty light spanking.

Deadlines have a way to improve productivity – you just have to move them closer. I think everyone has a love/ hate relationship with deadlines: we love to hate ourselves when we miss deadlines, and we hate missing deadlines. So we start loving our work – instead of just ourselves – a week, a day, or six hours before a deadline. A good creative has the info, the idea, and a bunch of possible solutions bouncing around his or her skull minutes or moments after the problem is introduced. But a good creative also knows that those first ideas won’t be the best and need to either be crafted or scrapped entirely. A prof in ad school taught us to “kill our babies” which either sounds way less crazy or way crazier depending on how crazy you are.

Deadlines aren’t crazy though. They have the ability to make some people go crazy. Or do crazy things, or think crazy thoughts (the “kill your babies” thing was just about dropping your idea when it isn’t the best one). But deadlines usually just mean brain activity starts in a hurry and something gets done. A quick example is when someone says, “Who was that guy in Demolition Man? The kind of bad guy, with the hair?” and everyone responds, “Wesley Snipes” but the asker of the question is unsatisfied. Until someone pulls out their phone to Google it and you yell out, “Denis Leary!”

The deadline was there: Google was about to answer the question, but your brain knew the answer. The problem wasn’t perfectly formed, but the brain still searched for a solution. And with that deadline, activity increased and the answer was found.

I love that. And I love the 11th hour. I’m not saying I push every single deadline, or my best work always comes at the deadline, but I love to use all the time given to give the best work I can. I love the night before a briefing, the days until the pitch, and the night before when the plan changes because what was being worked out until then was just silver. And you just hit gold.