Nothing works like Deadlines!

 Nothing motivates me as much as having to deal with a deadline. Especially at work. Gives the much needed adrenaline rush to get things done. It's a shame, isn't it? But it works! As I keep procrastinating working on a project just driven by inertia (!) - these deadlines ring the alarm bell and pull me to the finish line. I often ruminate how much better things would be had I started working earlier on them. 

Deadlines always take me to my IIM Days when a 11:59:59 deadline was the norm. You could really feel the feverish excitement / nervousness in the hostel lobbies as time inched towards the new day. Of course, there was a lot of disincentive when we didn't meet deadlines, so we tried really hard to.
 

We mostly struggle with keeping to deadlines in the non-work space. Though I've been singing for long, I hadn't performed for more than 30 min at a stretch in a really long time - decades. As I revived my music lessons in the past few years, I realized I had to take the plunge at some point. I curated an opportunity for a concert myself with a deadline of less than a month & worked towards it. What seemed to be working very well turned out to be quite a damp squib finally with a terrible sore throat in the last few days before the D day. However, what I learnt was - When you work towards something you value, a little bit every day - you will get there. This is quite a motherhood statement I know, but easier said than done!