In any case, you’re going to miss a deadline, and you know your boss, your customer, or whoever else you owe your work to is not going to be excited.
Friday, November 07, 2014
When You Miss a Deadline - Next Steps
In any case, you’re going to miss a deadline, and you know your boss, your customer, or whoever else you owe your work to is not going to be excited.
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19 comments:
When I first read the title of this article my first thought was, “The struggle is real!” But then again, missing a deadline in theater is way less of an option because there are very few excuses for not opening a show on time, it happens, but holy crap does it cost a lot of money when people do. The point in the article to be the most interesting and probably one of the harder ones was, “Show Professionalism and Appreciation”. I imagine this one as being really difficult because already the “professionalism” one is a bit broken, maybe you have to be proving professionalism as well as continue to show it after this missed deadline. I like the advice Larssen gives, its simple and I think I really goes a long way. Staying professional means not harping on the idea that you were late in a deadline, but moving forward efficiently and not effecting the person who needs the work too much. In theater missing a deadline can really screw over a department who is relying on your work to get done so I think that these tips are only good to a certain extent and sometimes all you have to do is buckle down to get it done as close to on time as you can make it.
I'm going to do a before and after for this article only because a lot of these self-help blurbs can be a little disappointing in their information. I'm hoping it gives me some idea on how to tackle the missed deadline, asking for an extension and how to apologize/ make up for the mistake. Not how to do better next time, I've learned that from this mistake.
That was actually a great article, I like the offer an option idea. And the telling in advance: so important! If you know your going to miss a deadline don't leave people in the dark! you make their day terrible and in the end it only hurts you because they are no longer more willing to give you a break.
As a professional in the theater world I agree with what Simone had to say in regards to missing deadlines can mean a show opening late. It is a lot harder to ask for an extension when it comes to load in or tech. However, perhaps an extension on when a plot is due could be a bit more flexible. This article is useful as a student though where running into needing an extension can happen frequently, especially with our workload. Maintaining the respect of your teachers is important and knowing how to ask for extensions on assignments is important. I have noticed in the past that some students end up waiting until 1am the day an assignment is due to realize they need an extension and how unprofessional that is. Surely, while working you could have noticed the time it was going to take a bit sooner. I think the most important take away is too give advance noticed, be respectful and don't let it happen a lot.
I really like this article. I know it is extremely important to ask for the extension as early as you can and I really like how the author pointed out that you should give a specific day and time for your new deadline rather than leaving it up to your boss or teacher. After all, they are not the ones that know how much extra time you are really going to need; maybe they thought you were trying to ask for a longer extension than you needed and they were going to get more disappointed/mad or they thought you could finish it faster. Of course, they may still only give you a shorter extension depending on the situation. I agree with Simone here; this gets dicey when you live in the theatre world where a delay could be catastrophic to the opening day and cost a lot of money.
I especially liked the blurb at the end about setting a fake deadline a few days early. I have used this many times and it not only ensures that you will finish on time, but it gets you thinking about ideas earlier because you tricked yourself you don't have as much time. And if you need an extension for past your fake deadline you don't need to worry about asking because the deadline you tried to hit was not the real deadline.
We are not perfect human beings. And as college students trying to understand time management can take it's own semester long course. SO yeah everyone gets's confused and falls behind sometimes but it ok because like the people who need the work your falling behind on, they are human too and have been in your place before. Just being here at CMU I have learned that as much as I like to do everything right the first time I know I can't. I've been learning that I have to let go of the delusion and face that facts that this time just isn't going as planned and that it's okay to ask for help. College is the place to learn, not the place to be perfect 24/7. IF i wanted to be perfect why would I go to college. It doesn't mean I shouldn't strive for perfection but knowing my limits and when to ask for help has been the biggest life lesson I'm learning here so far.
I disagree with some of the the other comments on here in terms of this article's importance. At least from my perspective, these are basically all things that should be obvious, and you should have learned by now. If youre at this point in college and you are gaining much from an online article about deadlines, I think that points to a bigger problem. I will say, i think one point they made that not enough people are aware of is the point about choices. If you cant get something done on time, especially if its going to screw over someone else, its definitely their choice about how to proceed.
Missing a deadline is something I have had to get used to. In grade school it wasn't optional to turn in late assignments. I could either turn it in on time or get points off for turning it in late. That idea hasn't really changed in college but now I have the option to ask for an extension. It has definitely come in handy a few times and rules behind asking for one is everything the article mentioned. Although an obvious rule, I have the hardest time with "giving plenty of notice." Sometimes it can be hard to gauge if you can actually finish a projection time and to understand when it is time to notify your boss or teacher.
I think the most important bit of this article is the possibility of giving the person an option of the incomplete project on time, or the complete project late. I've found this is really useful especially in class situations. Life happens, sometimes things don't get done. Telling people in advance is a great tip, but sometimes it's impossible. Yes, this article is helpful, but I think that it's rather simple. We should know this already. That being said, the information is not untrue in any way. For me personally, I always get caught up in explaining myself too much. I guess I could cut down on that.
The article's reminders about brevity when explaining or expressing gratitude for an extension are very important. When you are so so so so thankful for something, it just makes the situation awkward. The idea of a bonus is a good one. Giving a discount or add-on seems common sense when it comes to a product transaction with a company like Amazon, etc. but the principle is also very applicable to less-tangible work.
I think this is some really great advice. As a horrible procrastinator the issue of where to suffer through the night or to ask for an extension often arises in my head. I think the most important points highlighted in this article are to 1. not ask for extensions too often, 2. to try to ask in as advance as possible, and 3. to be polite and respectful about it. I often end up just staying up late to finish my work, because although my productivity goes down as I tire the quality of work is usually up to the standard I set myself. When I know i can't live up to such standards due to time constraints, illness or other work that takes precedent I normally like to ask for an extension a head of time so I have the lead time I need to give my work my all. I like this article because it acknowledges that we've all asked for an extension before, and that it doesn't make it out to be a great vice but just a practicality we sometimes need to accept. Truly an extension can be a great thing especially if the extended time allows you to produce a better final product.
Deadlines have never been a real issue for me until I came to CMU. The work we are doing here is so different from what I am used to that it can be very difficult for me to budget my time well enough to complete everything I need to on time. While I am keeping my head above water, I definitely have struggled to tread at certain points in time. However, I have to agree with Trent that the ways to handle missing a deadline should be fairly obvious and sort of makes this article fairly unhelpful at our age and experience with educational deadlines.
It's interesting because in my head I thought of how subjective "Deadlines" are and what they are defined as. I think about "loose deadlines" like hey I'll get you rehearsal props tomorrow, and harder deadlines like costumes for dress rehearsal. We've all been in situations where we have experienced people failing to meet these deadlines. This being somewhat...typical in our industry, we obviously adapt expectations, scope to fit what can be accomplished and move on. Or we just add thins in last minuet or late and go from there. In terms of professionalism, this happens so much, do people actually equate lack of professionalism with missing deadlines? Do we fire the whole scene shop every time they don't have the entire show loaded in by tech? I have seen people get fired during seasons and it's honestly less about the missed deadlines and more about not meeting expectations. Also throwing it out there, if you know you're not going to make your deadline, communicating about it in advanced and re-negotiating timelines and resources. Does that still maintain professionalism?
This is an important article and something that far too many people struggle with on a day to day basis. The most crucial thing is realizing that some things just aren't okay to miss. A show opening isn't something that can just be put off, whereas the due date of an rendition of the design can possibly be put back a day or two with good reason. It is all about using good judgment and maintaining a level of respect and professionalism with your colleagues and higher-ups. Giving someone advanced notice of about an hour is not professional and will greatly tar their image of you, whereas having enough forethought to know that there's a chance you won't be able to get something done is really important and something that should always be looked at when starting any project that has a deadline.
This tips with simple and striaght forward and I really appreciated that. They seemed very easy to remember which is the best part.
Think it boils down yet again to communication.Communicate with the person who you have a deadline with as soon as possible, so that way you can adjust and so they can also adjust. I think this is most important it give you and them a opportunity to plan the earliest available due date. This keeps work moving forward and still in a somewhat, maybe slower, positive direction. Overall I think this is probably the best self help article I have read in a while.
This is an awesome article. I wasn't surprised to see the author mention the "give a bonus" tip, because that's the tactic I normally think of first when it comes to missing a deadline. The one I was surprised by was the "give an option" tactic, because I never would've thought of that. Then again, when I think back to the times I've seen that tactic used, it worked about 95% of the time. Of course staying as professional as possible throughout the whole debacle goes without saying, since you want to show that you care that your work is late, which will allow the person expecting your work to be a bit more lenient. I also agree that something like this should be as rare as possible, again to show that you really care about what you're doing, and you have previous work to back you up in a time where you may need it.
THis article gives some great advice, but only in certain contexts. For example, with writers, this makes sense if the article is going to be published online, but in theater or live entertainment, it is a little harder to get an extension for a major piece of the set because that can throw a wrench in the whole schedule. Overall, the advice is useful, even just for classes and talking with professors. Talking to them in advance and being professional about it is very important.
Important information that I hope I never have to use. Time management has always been one of my problem areas, but understanding what to do if I fuck up is pretty important. Obviously whoever you owe work to is going to be unhappy with you, but maintaining at least a layer of decency is important to maintaining professional connections. Great article, very straightforward and important.
Important information that I hope I never have to use. Time management has always been one of my problem areas, but understanding what to do if I fuck up is pretty important. Obviously whoever you owe work to is going to be unhappy with you, but maintaining at least a layer of decency is important to maintaining professional connections. Great article, very straightforward and important.
We all miss deadlines. It is a very simple fact of life. In fact, I want to say that it is something that is completely avoidable, but lets face reality for a moment...it is unavoidable. The thing is there is always something going on in reality that is pulling us away from our work causing us to miss our deadlines. When this happens the best thing to do it just to own up to it. You missed a deadline. It happens. Wife will go on. It is not like the world was set on fire. Just be prompt with getting the task completed and apologize to an casualties and you will be fine.
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