May
16
Working right to the wire
Filed Under Reflection
4pm today is the deadline for the hand-in of my son’s final project for his design degree. This week he has worked straight up to 20 hours at a time and he has spent the past 24 hours in the studio. Not that this is an isolated incident though. Over the 4 years of his course there have been many long late shifts.
I don’t know how he does it but when I share this story with others they usually tell me about their own escapades of working right to the wire on a deadline.
I have to admit that I do focus best when a deadline is looming. I will find long and interesting routes to a solution if I have loads of time ( some might call that procrastination!). Sometimes that informs the final output. At other times it heaps on stress. However, ever since I had to go into hospital with my young daughter for several days many years ago and missed an important work deadline I have built in a wee bit of “just in case” time. ( it goes without saying that my concern for my daughter over-rode any concern I had for work !).
I wonder how quality of performance is affected by working right to the wire. It makes me feel tired just thinking about it but those I have spoken to say that the adrenalin kept them going and they only noticed how exhausted they were when they stopped. It would be interesting to know if there is a difference in quality between work done at the last minute and that prepared in good time. I expect that would have as much to do with the person producing it than anything else.
The big problem I guess is when someone who does like to leave things to the last minute is working as part of a team where the others hate working that way! Certainly, when I was a student myself, I remember a major group project where a team member missed their agreed deadline leaving the rest of us fuming and scrabbling to finish in less time than planned.
I will ask Robyn at Brain Based Biz about the science on this one. Watch this space!
In the meantime are you a “right to the wire” person and if so please share how that works for you?
The psychology of deadlines … interesting topic. When people in a work group clash, how do you resolve it? It drives me crazy when work comes down to the wire, and I’m not going to change. But the folks who thrive on last minute scrambling aren’t going to change, either.
I’ve done it both ways, and it entirely depends on a lot of things.
For instance, for a project I’m really into, working hard and fast at the last minute can actually quite fun! But… not so much when it’s something I wish I didn’t have to do.
On the other hand, I like having lots of time to complete a project, only because experience has taught me that more often than not, something will come up at the last minute!
Hi Jackie, interestingly there are several possibilities. Another blogger, Frank Roche had asked me this question when I did a Question Train series on mind and brain so I went deep into the research and found several possibilities which I’ll list before giving you the title of the post where you will find much more in depth work on this. Here’s the skinny:
Temptation - people see enticing things they’d rather do.
Genes play a part - maybe your own desire to do things very well helped him see it in action
Creating a rush - some people get a rush from completing a project at the last minute
Human nature’s lazy - I have a link to Dr. Ellen Weber’s post.
You’ll find the material that links each of these to the brain in “Why Do People Procrastinate, then Rush?” posted on July 21, 2007 in my Archives.
An earlier post in which I discuss this is, “Not Good Enough?” posted on February 27, 2007. This shows that perfectionism enters into the problem.
I show in a recent post on Sorting Apples that my bent to make sure apples were perfect slowed me down and I lost a job. So I admit I struggle with perfectionism, too. Fact is that when I was trying to write a chapter for Age of Conversation I raised the bar so high for myself that I suffered writers’ block.
So there you have it. You’ll see that it is a multi-faceted problem.
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