Dealing With Deadlines (For Vocal Challenges)

Introduction - Why I Am Writing This

I continually see posts about people just getting their stories in before a challenge cut off or actually missing the challenge, which must be absolutely heartbreaking. There is also the problem with Challenge Fatigue which you can read about in the article below by Natasja Rose, it is very illuminating.

At school I was a devil for not getting homework in on time, often doing it in the playground before the lesson, or on the bus to school.

Exams were another thing, while I learned enough during the year I seldom did much revision as when I actually tried to revise it showed up all the things I didn’t know and that then started hitting the panic buttons in my mind.

Eventually, I stopped revising in the weeks before the exams, having done it long before the exam date and that meant I felt more prepared and calmer when I took exams.

I never went to university, and my methods did not always work but I felt they were right for me.

How I Deal With Hitting Challenge Deadlines

Since starting work I have to meet deadlines for doing things including actually turning up for work.

Often my work requires data extraction almost immediately, but usually, there are things that are planned based on legal requirements and financial dates, like the start of the month, end of the month, end of the quarter and end of the financial year. These are set in stone although sometimes things happen that slightly knock me off course.

So I build in contingency and where I can I get the required work either finished early or I lay down as much of the work as I can before it needs to be delivered. I suppose I remember how I used to do homework and revision, but I always hit my deadlines now. And always Have.

A funny story is that I used to deploy messages for a mobile phone company. One Christmas Eve at 4 pm I got a call saying there was a campaign that had to go out on Boxing Day. I refused and said I would do it the day after Boxing Day, the next working day. The Campaign manager was not happy but eventually accepted my position.

It never failed to amaze me that planning departments often are unaware of events like Christmas, New Year, Valentine's Day, Easter (a bit more difficult because it moves) and Summer. And when they come along they seem somehow shocked. We have calendars that tell us what is coming, especially in this digital age.

Where I work now we have mandatory training, usually given to us at the start of the year and needs to be legally complete by the end of the year so I always make time to do that immediately but many people ignore it and then don’t have time to hit the required date.

When I get a requirement for some work, I always reply as soon as I get it saying when I can complete the task and make a note of when it has to be done in my calendar.

Conclusion And What I Actually Do

If I have a deadline date for anything, I make it two days before so I know I always have time to complete whatever I am doing. Remember our lives take precedence over what we do in Vocal. I know that my writing is not good enough to win a challenge, but I still like to enter, but because of that if I missed the closing date it wouldn’t bother me.

So what I would advise is very simple. When you see a Vocal Challenge, start thinking about what you want to write as soon as possible and get it written and submitted. You will know the end date, but I know there are a million things that will distract you and make you forget, but you will feel better if you actually get things in early.