Deadlines Forces Creativity

This is also mentioned in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (which I haven't read in a while, so bear with me). When one of his English students complains she's stuck and can't figure out where to start her essay, he tells her to pick a single city to write about. When she returns later with the same problem, he tells her to pick a single building in that city to write about. When she again returns later, he tells her to pick a single brick in that building to write about. When she again returns later, she comes back with dozens of pages.

I recall there being some comments about how she had to narrow her focus, because when you think of a city you can only think of all the things you've ever been told about that city, or ever heard about that city. Even when you think of a building you can only think of what other people have said about that building. When you focus on a single brick, it becomes clear that no one has ever said anything about it; so you clear your mind and think and write your own thoughts...

Point being, limiting yourself can get rid of certain distractions and make it clearer what your task actually is.

This was also commented on in the Tao of Programming:

A manager asked a programmer how long it would take him to finish the program on which he was working. "It will be finished tomorrow," the programmer promptly replied.

"I think you are being unrealistic," said the manager, "Truthfully, how long will it take?"

The programmer thought for a moment. "I have some features that I wish to add. This will take at least two weeks," he finally said.

"Even that is too much to expect," insisted the manager, "I will be satisfied if you simply tell me when the program is complete."

The programmer agreed to this.

Several years later, the manager retired. On the way to his retirement luncheon, he discovered the programmer asleep at his terminal. He had been programming all night.

-- "The Tao of Programming", section 5.3

This was inspiring. As others have stated, this isn't about deadlines per se, but limitations.

This is such a common theme among artists, here's Stravinsky rifting on the same:

http://jorielle-music.blogspot.com/2005/06/stravinsky-on-acc...

@jberryman

You're certainly right, Jack is talking about limitations, and a bit about deadlines. The reason I used "deadlines" rather than "limitations" in the title was deliberate though. I think for many creative types, having a firm deadline is one of the best, and sometimes only, ways to get something shipped. It's hard to produce art. There's a lot of ego involved. It's real easy to keep polishing, trying to get it just the nth degree more perfect. Deadlines eliminate this.

This applies elsewhere too: in most mediations and negotiations we set a hard deadline. The deal is inevitably made minutes before the deadline. It doesn't really matter how much time is allotted: whether you have 40 hours or 4 hours, almost all of the time will be chewed up by bickering and arguing over positions. The deal is almost always made in the last 30 minutes or less.

Not just deadline, other kinds of constraints do that too. When you're given a paper and asked to draw your mod creative piece, you can sit there for hours debating where to start. Now if you are asked to draw the your most creative flower with four petals, you can channel your creativity to very specific areas.

It is not just deadlines, I find that any social situation where people are dependent on what I produce to be an extremely strong motivator - moreso than any well organized task list or plan -

This is something I've often observed. Something about a looming deadline really focuses my mind and lets me churn out amazing work in surprisingly little time.

Most recently I noticed this when writing an article for a magazine. Weeks went by and I didn't write a thing. Then days went by and I churned out perhaps 100 words.

Then the deadline was in a few hours and I churned out a 3000 word article over two cups of tea in a single sitting. Didn't even take my eyes off whatever text editor I was using. The flow was just there.

So yes, from my observations, if you want to get in the flow - just have a looming deadline.