The nice thing about deadlines is that they force you to ship. Your article, your app, your art will never be perfect, so of course you can always make it better tomorrow. Deadlines force you to give that last burst of effort to make something at least “good enough.”

I’m OK at externally imposed deadlines, but I’m not so good at creating deadlines for myself. That’s what a regular project sprint cycle is – it’s an internally imposed deadline to ship every week or two.

Internal deadlines are all about creating a regular rhythm. It’s less about getting something done at a specific time and more about inducing that burst of creative effort in a predictable, reliable way.

Gotta go – I have an article due …