Deadlines

During my (*cough*second*cough*) senior year at the University of Oregon, I had an epiphany: Slacking off isn't much good when you spend all that "slack time" worrying about whatever it is you're putting off doing. This epiphany created a paradigm shift for me. Instead of doing everything in a panicked rush at the last minute, I did everything in a panicked rush like it was the last minute . . . except that I did it as early as possible. This left me abundant time to shoot the breeze without having to worry about anything but my already crazy credit card debt.

This has pretty much been my model ever since: pick a deadline, get stuff done. Don't pick a deadline? Don't get stuff done.

I felt triumphant after writing about biting the bullet. Hot damn, I thought, imma do this thing! Except, in an administrative oversight, I forgot to set a deadline.

In the interest of accountability--oh, and let's not forget about clearing up that mental space I so desperately need--I think I'd better remedy that. Barring rabid monkeys stealing my computers, my computers becoming possessed or my actually becoming rabid myself, my deadline for editing the second book is September 1, 2011. My deadline for editing the third book is March 1, 2012.

If these dates are creeping up and you find me hinting the deadlines are perhaps a wee bit unattainable, please:
1) Smack me over the head, then
2) Point me to this post, then
3) Remind me I am merely editing already written books, for which six months apiece was probably a lot on the excessive side.

I'd simply ask you to remember that any expletive-heavy grumbling you hear at such time should be translated as, "Thank you for keeping me on track!"