DEADLINES - (Banes talks to himself)

I remember the first time the idea of deadlines made any kind of impression on me. I was maybe fifteen and a substitute teacher told me a bit about higher education and that a professor had told her to take all the time she needed to finish some project or other (not sure if it was a thesis or what). She told me it had been two years and she'd made no progress on it whatsoever.

The truth of that little story stayed with me…though I can't say I've used it to improve myself much. At fifteen I'd somehow survived by doing basically zero homework or studying. That wouldn't change throughout most of my school career.

But over the years, this truth has hit me every so often. As much as I yearn for more time to develop ideas and less pressure to finish stuff, the reality is that NOTHING gets done without a deadline or some kind of external pressure.

Of course, I'm speaking for myself, here. Maybe some of you out there are driven types who produce results and are motivated from within. I envy you! And hate you.

Add to that the fact that time shoots by more and more quickly as the years go on. In school, I NEVER had the experience of a day or week zipping by the way they do now. There have been some great ideas for little projects that got me excited - I've been shocked to look at my pages and see that 4-5 months have passed since that idea, and I still haven't done it!

I'm glad to have the chance to do this Thursday Blog. Hopefully I'm contributing to the Duck, a place I love, but it's also given me the opportunity to mark the weeks as they rocket past! I'm thankful for the pressure to produce something for Thursday; already it's amounted to a nice little body of…well, I won't say "work", but a body of…something. Something that wouldn't have existed without the pressure of a deadline.

Posting comics functions the same way. The desire to keep readers interested and coming back applies that pressure.

Funnily enough, this line of thought comes at a VERY busy time with no end in sight, and an update schedule that's been my slowest ever.

Because I've got that external pressure, but haven't created an actual deadline! A schedule! Even a once per week deadline would be enough.

Oh, my…the answer to my problem was with me from the beginning, Toto!

I've gotta post a page next week!



-Banes