The Secret to Surviving a Crazy Deadline

Chronos, King of Deadlines and Missed Buses

As professional artist, you will have deadlines. That is a truth that cannot really be escaped, unless you are so famous that people are willing to wait however long it takes (ala one of Seal's heroes, Yuri Norstein and his wife). But for most of us, we face deadlines, either by having to get work delivered by a certain date for a gallery show, or overnight deadlines for newspaper illustrations, etc. etc. How to survive?

Well, let's rule out avoiding the crazy deadline in the first place. Whether you procrastinated too much, or life happened, or your client is sorta nuts and expects miracles, you're in this situation and that's that.

So, what do we do? First things first is to figure out a plan. While it may seem counter-intuitive to take a quick breather and map out a game plan, this step is crucial. Seal is great at this, which makes Monkey very grateful to have her, since he tends to take action before thinking at times. Planning your course of action is very important, since time is not on your side, you want to be as efficient as possible.

By figuring out all the steps you have to take, you can figure out your priorities, and create a flowchart of action items. For something like silkscreen, figuring out a proper flowchart can save you hours of time. Since the bottlenecks in the printing process usually revolve around waiting for the screens to dry, you have to constantly jump back and forth in the process to maximize your time. If there is a part of the process that can't be sped up (ie. paint drying, etc.) try to do other things that might take you a long time that can be done in any order while that's happening (ie. going out and buying a frame, or writing up price sheets, etc.).

At the top of your priority list should be any extra materials you might need. If you can make sure that you won't run out of some crucial supply ("Nooooo, I'm out of cyan ink and it's 3am!!"), you'll save yourself crazy amounts of stress. Also, it'll help you overall as you won't get distracted with a sudden stop due to lack of materials. You want to make getting the work done as streamlined as possible.

Now that you've got your plan of action, Monkey + Seal recommend grabbing a quick snack. Monkey prefers Cliff Bars (the Blueberry ones are pretty awesome). Carbs or sugars are generally a great way to go, as you want to make sure that your blood sugar is high. You're going to probably be working harder and faster than usual, so you want to make sure that you have some readily accessible energy. Nothing is worse than going at it and then suddenly have your energy just tank on you. Also, in order to keep from crashing, it's a good idea to snack here and there if time permits to keep that blood sugar as stable as possible. Make sure you're staying hydrated - it'll help to prevent headaches and will aid in digestion.

Next - make sure that you can get rid of as many distractions as possible. If you can, turn off the phone. Close all the extraneous blog windows and social media sites. Get off twitter and facebook. Turn on some music (if you work well with music) or turn it off (if you need silence) and get some earplugs. The least amount of stuff you have vying for your attention the easier it'll be to stay focused and work more efficiently.

Finally, (here comes the hard part,) you get down to work.

There. You've somehow managed to survive another crazy deadline, and it's time for some well-deserved rest (hopefully). Now you can use the knowledge gained from this experience to make next time a bit easier. The more knowledge you have about your working habits (how long it takes to paint a 16x20 landscape, or how much ink you need to make 50 prints, etc.) the better you can plan for the future. Congratulations!

Deadlines Can Be Your Friend

Deadlines are a mixed bag for Monkey + Seal. While they serve to create an endpoint to a project, they can be really stressful and emotionally taxing. We think it all depends on how you use deadline and the boundaries that you set.

For personal work, deadlines can help push you to focus and prioritize more on a specific project that will force you to really work on something. Since many times personal pieces are done for you, sometimes it is not clear when you're really "done" with a piece. If you are a photo-realistic painter, this may not apply as you're done when it looks like a photo, but if you have a stylistic approach, this is oftentimes a bit more of a blurry line.

By forcing yourself to work within a specified time frame, if you're the type of person that needs structure, you can squeeze out some amazing stuff in a short period of time. While this does not work for everyone, if you find yourself being more productive when you're in a time crunch (procrastinators, anyone?) setting deadlines can be a really positive thing. It may even push you to experiment (for better or worse) in trying new techniques and mediums that you may not have thought about before.

However, if you're the type that does not create well under pressure, then deadlines can be very rough on you. The pressure to create and to produce can be overwhelming, so much so that even if you want to start early, you may find yourself psyching yourself out until the last possible minute when you realize that you don't have any more time to spare.

Sometimes you just don't have enough time to do your best work and you end up turning in something less than par, or even something that you're a bit embarrassed by. In these cases, we like to focus on that fact that as long as you do your best given the circumstances, you shouldn't beat yourself up so much. Like we've said before, as long as you take something away from every experience, it's not the end of the world. If you failed to execute an illustration in the way that you wanted to, you now know that given x hours, you cannot produce what you were trying to. You now know what does not work, so at least when a client asks you "Can you produce X in Y amount of time" you'll know how to answer.

Deadlines can definitely help push you to your best and to give you an action plan of prioritization for any project. But they only work if you set proper guidelines and boundaries and stick to them. In the end, time may be your worst enemy, but if you take the experience as an imperfect victory instead of a loss, you'll be all the closer to mastering the clock.