Making advertising is about having ideas on behalf of others for money on deadline. But it’s the deadline where most of us go blank in the eyes. The deadline implies that there’s not enough time, and that idea scares the hell out of creative people. Moving yourself, and others, past the paralyzing fear of not getting it done takes confidence, courage, and maybe a couple of mental tricks.
Research into procrastination has noted that people have much less concern about their future selves than their present selves — and are willing to sell their future selves down the river for the sake of present ease. But when the present marches into the future, and we are confronted with the work that our past selves refused to do, we pay the price in unmet deadlines, all-nighters and general torment.
One way to avoid all-nighters and lost weekends is to move your sense of the future into the present. Here’s the story, in The New York Times.