Self-imposed Deadlines
Ah, deadlines… I remember frantically scribbling the last lines of my calculus assignment, in class, minutes before the teacher went around collecting them. (on non-deadline days, I would usually be asleep by then).
Or, when I was designing brochures freelance, I would always show up at the client’s office with bags under my eyes, and the freshly printed draft smearing ink on my fingers.
That was in my high-school years, back in Kuwait where I grew up. I was comfortable with deadlines. It meant I got things done (but only just).
Then I came over to Montreal, to get a Bachelor’s in Physics. As the years went by, deadlines became less rigid. By the time I was taking graduate courses, they were merely hints.
Of course few professors actually said this. If they did, the poor TA would wind up correcting some guy’s “first week” assignment and his final exam at the same time.
Anyway… Right, deadlines. My thesis supervisor once pointed out that “if you bend the rules often enough, you forget about them.” And I bent the rules often. Until I forgot about them, and the deadlines attached to them.
It was a bit of a mess. I had to spend a month fixing things up again.
That’s when I realized that I was losing the ability to deal with deadlines. And more importantly, I had never learned how to set deadlines and goals for myself.
This was a problem, and I had to fix it. And so began my journey towards HabitShaper! (cue sweeping/epic score)
