Are Deadlines Raining Your Parade?
Know what I love? A warm + decadent chocolate lava cake with vanilla bean ice cream on top. Simply perfection.
Know what I hate? A warm + decadent chocolate lava cake with a half-ass melted vanilla bean ice cream on top. Makes me mad for several reasons. First, it makes me question the restaurant, don’t they know anything about anything? Second, makes me want to come inside the kitchen + lower the thermostat on their freezer. Third, makes me want to strangle my waiter for taking so damn long between the kitchen + my table.
Unhappy customer. That’s what I am when you melt my ice cream. Glad I got that out of the way.
Today I want to talk about dramatizing deadlines. Yeap, it has absolutely nothing to do with ice cream, except for the commiserating to others part.
I know you’re hustling. I can see it very clearly. But you are so freaking cleaver when it comes to finding ways to stress yourself out + deadlines seem to be high up on your list. So, unless you want to get an ulcer before your next birthday I want to do my thing + show you three practical ways that you can unrain your parade?
Have any stories you’d like to share about ways in which deadlines impact your life? Of course Curious Mayi wants to hear em’. I’m specially interested in getting out of you those actionable tips you implement to have a healthier relationship with your project expirations. Take it over in the comments.
xo,
Mayi Carles
PS: 5K Sales in 365 Days is hot out of the oven. Have you grabbed your copy? Pre-sale awesomeness ends sooner than you think so don’t let your pj’s hold you up.
21 Responses to Are Deadlines Raining Your Parade?
Spill Open
Come on in! Yes you, in your paint stained pajamas if you wish. This is your space to dream up + spill open your splendidly messy life in progress. You're bound to leave here feeling happier + super empowered + most certainly loved.
I make it a point to under promise and over deliver — it keeps people happy!
Great tip Alicia
Eres la mejor!!!! Ya quiero que sea viernes!! you rock!!!
Te quiero amiguita linda. Next week Parque Omar… we need to catch up
Hi Mari, great tips. I have a huge event coming up in two weeks I’ve known about all summer and have been working to have things done and not be rushed but the sense of urgency to finish everything on my plate is slowing creeping up. What’s helped me is prioritizing what actually needs to be done each day and give myself a time limit. So if I have tons of house work I’lll pretend someone is coming over so I’ll clean as fast as I can for an hour then I’ll have the rest of my morning to work in my studio. When I find myself distracted by ph calls, Facebook or tv I take 5 minutes and get it out if my system. Then I can go back to what I was working on so I can meet these deadlines and not feel bad cause I’m focusing on Only one thing. Thanks for all the advice it’s really helpful!
Thank you for your great insight Yolanda. Timing your “procrastinating’ time is super smart + effective. I use my cellphone alarm to call my time out + it’s really good
Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines…
Hmm…I might get this order completed if I wasn’t hiding out in Facebook land…
I’m setting a timer to END my hiding out. I will set my timer to 10 minutes. The timer is connected to a taser that zaps me if I reach 10 minutes + 1 second. Hehehe!
I find that if I’m hiding out it means that I’m suffering from overwhelm + that I need to get my cupcake in gear. But, there is a point that you reach in your biz that sometimes you need a little help from an assistant or a coach or someone to help you get on track. Don’t be afraid to ask for help + stop hiding out in Facebook land…
xoxo,
Kim
The good thing is that you recognize how time sucking Facebook is. That’s half the battle already won
I like your 10 minute rule. It won’t leave you deprived + it will keep your world domination efforts in check 
You look super cute with that small bow in your hair
And, oh, those looong shiny hair! You look like some kind of Motivation Fairy Princess 
OK, enough of that! 
For me deadlines are usually the thing that motivates me to work harder. But, of course, it’s not always like that. And when the amount of work is vanishing in a too slow pace and the deadline is getting closer and closer I just can’t find the power to work better. I fall in some weird state of mind when I’m sleepy all the time and my brain just switches off. It’s just like Kim said in her comment – feeling overwhelm by it all. And when I feel like that (TIP) I need to take some quality free time. Like going for a walk. But not some let’s-go-quickly-work-is-waiting-for-me walk, but a really long one with a set purpose of not being done in a hurry. Then everything gets set right in my head and when I get back to work, relaxed and peaceful, I can see a way of going out from that mess of deadlines
But the most disturbing thing when you try to meet your deadlines is the Internet. When I know that I just have to get down to work and there are no more excuses to say to my customer (TIP) I just switch off my computer. I can listen to a radio, don’t need whole computer for music. Interesting fact is, when I work with a switched off computer I have those floods of thought about things I should check on Wikipedia, or search on Google, or do on Etsy, and so on and so on. I write them all down on a piece of paper and getback to them when it’s computer-time but, probably, if the computer was on I would mindlessly do them just when I thought of them. No wonder I do things quicker without Internet!
A Motivation Fairy Princess! Oh my. I will have to go see what shampoo + conditioner I used because I ALWAYS want to be that hehehehehe.
Thanks for sharing how productive you can be without the computer on. Super inspiriting + worth borrowing.
In the process of learning this the hard way. When my wonderful hubby’s health threw a spanner in the works 2 weeks ago everything stopped. All the web based work just hung in mid air with only a tiny bit of the bi-daily postings got done. Now if I had the energy to panic about the web stuff it so wasn’t needed. every client and partner just left us to our own timetable after one short e-mail and though there was limited new stuff going out the numbers for that site sky-rocketed that week for no apparent reason. Plans and schedules are great but life can get in the way and that’s not always a bad thing!
Life has a way of following back to place hasn’t’ it? Thanks for sharing Kate. That was super brave!
Ohhhh you are so right. Just had the craziest week up to the release of my new online live workshop, and when I finally got my B** down and begin to do the stuff I actually had to do, wellll………….. I took about two hours, and I had been babbaling about it for 3 weeks. So I learned a big big lesson. Just sit down and do the things. Now. Not tomorrow. No facebook. Just do it. Now.
Love from Denmark
Maj
hahahahah NO FACEBOOK. I love it
Nike is right. JUST DO IT
Great tipps!!!
When I started selling buttons I actually thought that I have to deliver custom made buttons as QUICKLY as possible! So I used to set really really short deadlines. Like if someone emailed me – can I have them in three days I would say “Of course”! I had two little kids at home and needless to say these short deadlines caused more than one panick. Especially as I KNEW from experience that you can not really plan with kids. At all!
I found it really hard but now I do not offer to send out orders the next day – but I state that I send them within three days. I still try to send them the next day. But if it does not work out noone is mad. Also if I custom-make buttons I tell customers a MUCH longer time frame – like 2 weeks. This way I can make the buttons without being in a hurry – and even if something goes wrong I usually have enough time to fix it. Yes, maybe some people will not buy from me because I take to long to make them … but I am much happier this way!
xox
Ursula
I have to say that personally I find not having deadlines much more stressful than having them as it is much, much harder to motivate myself to do anything productive when I know that it doesn’t really matter when it gets done (I’ve tried giving myself deadlines but have found that they don’t work as I know that they aren’t real).
However, that said, a deadline too far in the distance tends to mean plenty of procrastination at the beginning and/or middle and then panic and stress when it’s looming. So, for big projects that have distant deadlines I would recommend breaking it into sections with mini-deadlines between now and when it needs to be done. And when you have too many projects on the go, my best tip is to prioritize. What is the most vital part and what are all the nice extras that you’re trying to add (which would be nice, but not if you’re stressed about how much there is to do)? What is due when? Working this out can make so much difference as you’re able to focus on one thing at a time rather than attempting to focus on everything and getting nothing done.
By the way, Mayi, I loved how your hair looks in this video.
Cupcake sprinkles, Tamara x
I always tell myself, “Relax, Wendy, the world is not going to end tomorrow.” Works like a charm every time.
HAHAHAHAHAHA I LOVE THAT MY FRIEND! LOVE IT!
good one, Wendy!
Once again, perfect timming on this FVT! Are you turning into a fly and coming to take a peek at what I’m doing (or not) from time to time? ‘Cause it sure feels like you are sometimes! ;P
I really need that to happen if I want to go forth wih my projects and plans. So, I guess I’ll start right now on setting alarms and reminders on my cellphone! 
(Kim, can I borrow that slapping machine of yours?)
Well… Since I’ve started out my newsletter, I’ve been having some difficulty dealing with time managent to get everything done properly and on time. More over as the computer from my work place, where I get to do most of it, started having more and more troubles, having the need to be repaired or not allowing me to access things that I need. But, off course, my main problem keeps on being controling my procrastination and distractions…
So, thank you all for your tips, I’ll definitelly put them to practice so that I get to be more productive and efficient, just as you ordered Mayi!
Oh! And Mayi, I got to tell you i do agree with all comments on how beautifull you loked on the vid! But I also have to say that there was a little trouble with the sound/image syncronization… Don’t know if it just happened on my pc or in everyone’s, but maybe you could check it out. It had happened in the last vid as well, I’m sorry for not telling you right then.
XOXO
Cathy
Hahahahahahah the slapping machine. You should register the brand Kim, it might become a multimillionaire invention just like the slinky