You Might Be Under Deadline If…

I’m in a deadline cave this week, so I have just a short post inspired by my current crazy schedule.  I’m so grateful to my awesome critique partners and beta readers.  They’re trying to keep me sane.  Or at least, they’re trying to keep me from going completely insane.  But I’ll admit that at least some of the following signs have applied to me in the past few days, so it might be a losing battle.

If you’ve ever experienced a deadline, this list might not seem very funny, but be careful of those post-traumatic stress disorder relapses, okay?  If you haven’t experienced a deadline yet, go ahead and laugh.  And then hope it never happens to you.

You Might Be Under Deadline If…

• You forget it’s your birthday.
• You decide a party would take too much time anyway.
• Your significant other says it’s okay not to shave.
• You decide you don’t have time to take a shower anyway.
• You don’t answer the phone.
• You ignore all non-deadline-related emails.
• You’re incapable of carrying on a conversation because you already have 5 deadline-related thoughts filling your brain.
• You take sloppy one-handed notes of the ideas that pop into your head while brushing your teeth.
• You think 4 hours of sleep can sustain you—every single night.
• You’re still wearing yesterday’s clothes.
• Your butt goes numb from not moving from your chair.
• You forget the rest of your house/apartment/office exists.
• Your family/co-workers deliver food to your desk.
• And you still forget to eat.
• And drink.
• And sleep.
• And go the bathroom.

And the number one sign of being under deadline (at least for me):

• You stay off Twitter.

Have you ever had a big deadline?  What coping strategies do you have?  Can you think of other signs of being under deadline?  Share your additions to this list in the comments.

Photo credit: Bizior Photography

Check out these related posts:

1. Have You Ever Been Tempted to Give Up?
2. When Should a Perfectionist Call Something Done?
3. A Perfectionist’s Guide to Editing: 4 Stages
4. Learning and Blogging and Writing—Oh My!
5. When Is Rejection a Good Thing?

Tagged as: beta reader, critique partners/groups, deadlines, editing, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, life balance, paranormal author, perfectionism, sacrifices, Twitter, writers are insane