You may think that you “work best under a deadline,” but there is actually a negative correlation between time pressure and creativity.
This video illustrates it beautifully!
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Just a little more time makes a big difference when it comes to creativity.
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Most people work better with a deadline. I find that not having a deadline only means that I re-prioritize my work so that tasks with a deadline get pushed to the front of the list while the tasks without a deadline are always getting pushed aside. Some of those no-deadline tasks are years old. Like the blue spray paint and sand paper I bought two years ago to refinish some folding wooden chairs – which, to date are not sanded or blue.
We recently had a grant with a published deadline, and then – about 72 hours before the deadline – the agency declared that the deadline was being extended indefinitely, but would be reset sooner than later. So naturally, right after breathing a sigh of relief, panic set in.
Having no deadline for a grant is unnatural. It’s like a burrito without a tortilla. A tortilla wraps up all the ingredients together nice and neat, like a deadline wraps all the work up together. A grant without a deadline is just a tostada. It’s a pile of lettuce, cheese, meat, guacamole, sour cream, and salsa, all piled up on your desk. What do you do with it? There’s simply no neat, easy way to finish it.
A grant without a deadline is just a mess. It’s narrative that’s never going to be finished because writing is never done anyway. It’s a budget that’s going to be constantly tinkered with because the more you change the narrative, the more you’ll have to change the budget. And, it’s all going to get pushed aside anyway by other emerging deadlines.
I like having a deadline. It gives you something to wrap up your project in, like a canole shell; but I guess I shouldn’t mix my grant-as-food metaphors.
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Related posts from non-profit consultant and expert grant writer, Derek Link:
Some Grants Are Like Peanut Butter
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Don’t Forget! You can learn grant writing online at our Online Learning Center.
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Most people work better with a deadline. I find that not having a deadline only means that I re-prioritize my work so that tasks with a deadline get pushed to the front of the list while the tasks without a deadline are always getting pushed aside. Some of those no-deadline tasks are years old. Like the blue spray paint and sand paper I bought two years ago to refinish some folding wooden chairs – which, to date are not sanded or blue.
We recently had a grant with a published deadline, and then – about 72 hours before the deadline – the agency declared that the deadline was being extended indefinitely, but would be reset sooner than later. So naturally, right after breathing a sigh of relief, panic set in.
Having no deadline for a grant is unnatural. It’s like a burrito without a tortilla. A tortilla wraps up all the ingredients together nice and neat, like a deadline wraps all the work up together. A grant without a deadline is just a tostada. It’s a pile of lettuce, cheese, meat, guacamole, sour cream, and salsa, all piled up on your desk. What do you do with it? There’s simply no neat, easy way to finish it.
A grant without a deadline is just a mess. It’s narrative that’s never going to be finished because writing is never done anyway. It’s a budget that’s going to be constantly tinkered with because the more you change the narrative, the more you’ll have to change the budget. And, it’s all going to get pushed aside anyway by other emerging deadlines.
I like having a deadline. It gives you something to wrap up your project in, like a canole shell; but I guess I shouldn’t mix my grant-as-food metaphors.
——————————
Related posts from non-profit consultant and expert grant writer, Derek Link:
Some Grants Are Like Peanut Butter
—————————–
Don’t Forget! You can learn grant writing online at our Online Learning Center.
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We are facing a big deadline this week. We have multiple grants due at the same time and everyone has his or her head down and nose to the grindstone, but we can always count on Derek to help us see the humor of it all. Here are some humorous thoughts from non-profit consultant and expert grant writer, Derek Link, on slowing down time when deadline time is racing closer.
Time flies when you’re approaching a deadline. I’m pretty sure that Superman is the only being, real or fictional, who can turn back time. If you’re approaching a deadline – mere mortal that you are – here are a few places you can go where in my experience time can actually slow down.
So if time seems to be going too fast and your deadline is staring you down like an angry railroad union member at the helm of a locomotive, take yourself away to a place where time slows down. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could merge these time warps and make it slow down for important stuff and speed up for annoying stuff? Oh Superman, where are you!?
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Related posts:
Grant Writing and the Space/Time Continuum
Stress Relief through Laughter
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Don’t forget to visit GrantGoddess.com for tips and ideas to improve your grant writing skills!
We are facing a big deadline this week. We have multiple grants due at the same time and everyone has his or her head down and nose to the grindstone, but we can always count on Derek to help us see the humor of it all. Here are some humorous thoughts from non-profit consultant and expert grant writer, Derek Link, on slowing down time when deadline time is racing closer.
Time flies when you’re approaching a deadline. I’m pretty sure that Superman is the only being, real or fictional, who can turn back time. If you’re approaching a deadline – mere mortal that you are – here are a few places you can go where in my experience time can actually slow down.
So if time seems to be going too fast and your deadline is staring you down like an angry railroad union member at the helm of a locomotive, take yourself away to a place where time slows down. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could merge these time warps and make it slow down for important stuff and speed up for annoying stuff? Oh Superman, where are you!?
———————————-
Related posts:
Grant Writing and the Space/Time Continuum
Stress Relief through Laughter
———————————
Don’t forget to visit GrantGoddess.com for tips and ideas to improve your grant writing skills!
Non-Profit consultant and grant writer, Derek Link, shares some thoughts on deadlines:
Deadlines are stressful and that’s what a wedding date is for a wedding planner. Each grant also comes with a deadline date and that makes grant writing stressful for the writer and his staff. Many grant applications are complicated documents that necessitate great attention to detail in order to produce a cohesive proposal. Paying attention to detail under the pressure of a deadline is hard! A good grant writer must also be a good organizer, sort of like a wedding planner, without the cake.
Here are a few glitches that can and do come up all in alignment with Murphy’s Law which says if things can go wrong, they will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.
1. Online submissions are always subject to the vagaries of the Internet, the website host, your internal network, your computer, your software, and power failures. A crash in any of these can cause you to miss a deadline.
2. Paper submissions are subject to internal network problems, computer problems, software problems, copier problems like running out of ink or hideous accordion-folded, roller-munching paper jams.
3. Any kind of submission can be impacted by key staff getting sick, faulty review of application docs that suddenly become clear at the last moment, lack of expertise with software or online submission programs, failure of the applicant to register for the online system in time to be approved and receive access, and even – dare I say it – clients who neglect to get key documents signed and returned until the day of the deadline.
In the end it’s crucial that the deadline is met because a tardy grant is a dead grant. It is important to know where the potential pitfalls are in advance, especially if you are motivated by the adrenaline-laced rush of procrastination. Alyce P. Cornyn-Selby in the Procrastinator’s Success Kit said, “A perfect method for adding drama to life is to wait until the deadline looms large.”
Grant drama is as inevitable as wedding drama so be sure you know where the pitfalls are and then put contingency plans in place.
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Do you know about the awesome resources available to you through the GrantGoddess.com Member Site?
Non-Profit consultant and grant writer, Derek Link, shares some thoughts on deadlines:
Deadlines are stressful and that’s what a wedding date is for a wedding planner. Each grant also comes with a deadline date and that makes grant writing stressful for the writer and his staff. Many grant applications are complicated documents that necessitate great attention to detail in order to produce a cohesive proposal. Paying attention to detail under the pressure of a deadline is hard! A good grant writer must also be a good organizer, sort of like a wedding planner, without the cake.
Here are a few glitches that can and do come up all in alignment with Murphy’s Law which says if things can go wrong, they will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.
1. Online submissions are always subject to the vagaries of the Internet, the website host, your internal network, your computer, your software, and power failures. A crash in any of these can cause you to miss a deadline.
2. Paper submissions are subject to internal network problems, computer problems, software problems, copier problems like running out of ink or hideous accordion-folded, roller-munching paper jams.
3. Any kind of submission can be impacted by key staff getting sick, faulty review of application docs that suddenly become clear at the last moment, lack of expertise with software or online submission programs, failure of the applicant to register for the online system in time to be approved and receive access, and even – dare I say it – clients who neglect to get key documents signed and returned until the day of the deadline.
In the end it’s crucial that the deadline is met because a tardy grant is a dead grant. It is important to know where the potential pitfalls are in advance, especially if you are motivated by the adrenaline-laced rush of procrastination. Alyce P. Cornyn-Selby in the Procrastinator’s Success Kit said, “A perfect method for adding drama to life is to wait until the deadline looms large.”
Grant drama is as inevitable as wedding drama so be sure you know where the pitfalls are and then put contingency plans in place.
—————————-
Do you know about the awesome resources available to you through the GrantGoddess.com Member Site?
In a perfect world, you would have months to prepare a quality grant application for a large federal competition. Wake up now. This is the real world, and if you have 30 days, you are way ahead of the norm.
In many cases, by the time you get approval to submit a proposal, you may have 2 or 3 weeks until the deadline. Under those conditions, submitting a quality application can seem impossible, but it’s not. Here are some tips to help you make it through a big application with a short timeline.
1. Read the instructions completely – before you do anything else. If you have followed my grant writing advice on this blog, the website, twitter, or my BlogTalkRadio show, it seems like you hear me say the say thing over and over again – read and follow the instructions. It’s always important, but when you have little time between when you start the process and when the grant is due, it’s even more important to read the instructions thoroughly from the start. Every day matters, and you really don’t want to find out three days before the deadline that you need letters of support or that the Intent to Apply (due three weeks ago) was required. Trust me on this. Take the time to read the whole RFP start to finish before you do anything else.
2. Make a list of information you’ll need from partners as you are reading the RFP or very soon afterward. Your partners will be able to respond to your needs more quickly if you give them a checklist that they can easily follow. When you have 30-45 days to work, you can develop that list collaboratively, but with a deadline of 2 weeks or less, you simply don’t have the time.
3. Get the partners together quickly to agree on a program design. You can do this through an in-person meeting or a conference call, but assemble as many of the project partners as quickly as possible so you can reach agreement quickly on a project design.
4. If letters of support or Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) are needed, start gathering the as soon as you have decided on a program design. In a normal grant development process, you have the luxury of developing the narrative first, but when the process is accelerated, you need to develop narrative and gather letters concurrently.
5. Develop a budget and the program design at the same meeting, if possible. People usually want to walk away from the program design meeting to work on the budget later, but it will be very helpful to you if you are able to agree on the budget – at least in general terms – at the same time that you talk about the project design. Try putting up some butcher paper and sketching the budget as the design conversation progresses.
Preparing a large grant application in 2 weeks or less can be a challenge. These tips can help make the task a little easier.
In a perfect world, you would have months to prepare a quality grant application for a large federal competition. Wake up now. This is the real world, and if you have 30 days, you are way ahead of the norm.
In many cases, by the time you get approval to submit a proposal, you may have 2 or 3 weeks until the deadline. Under those conditions, submitting a quality application can seem impossible, but it’s not. Here are some tips to help you make it through a big application with a short timeline.
1. Read the instructions completely – before you do anything else. If you have followed my grant writing advice on this blog, the website, twitter, or my BlogTalkRadio show, it seems like you hear me say the say thing over and over again – read and follow the instructions. It’s always important, but when you have little time between when you start the process and when the grant is due, it’s even more important to read the instructions thoroughly from the start. Every day matters, and you really don’t want to find out three days before the deadline that you need letters of support or that the Intent to Apply (due three weeks ago) was required. Trust me on this. Take the time to read the whole RFP start to finish before you do anything else.
2. Make a list of information you’ll need from partners as you are reading the RFP or very soon afterward. Your partners will be able to respond to your needs more quickly if you give them a checklist that they can easily follow. When you have 30-45 days to work, you can develop that list collaboratively, but with a deadline of 2 weeks or less, you simply don’t have the time.
3. Get the partners together quickly to agree on a program design. You can do this through an in-person meeting or a conference call, but assemble as many of the project partners as quickly as possible so you can reach agreement quickly on a project design.
4. If letters of support or Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) are needed, start gathering the as soon as you have decided on a program design. In a normal grant development process, you have the luxury of developing the narrative first, but when the process is accelerated, you need to develop narrative and gather letters concurrently.
5. Develop a budget and the program design at the same meeting, if possible. People usually want to walk away from the program design meeting to work on the budget later, but it will be very helpful to you if you are able to agree on the budget – at least in general terms – at the same time that you talk about the project design. Try putting up some butcher paper and sketching the budget as the design conversation progresses.
Preparing a large grant application in 2 weeks or less can be a challenge. These tips can help make the task a little easier.