Why the need for deadlines?

I just finished going through my RSS feeds and realized it didn't take as long as normal. Posts seem to have slowed down as we approach the end of the year and all that comes with it. I know I welcome this slow down as it seems like there is more and more to accomplish and less time to do it. Of course, that doesn't mean I will now use the time saved by fewer blogs to read to focus on one of the three books I would like to finish that are behind my computer. I wonder why?

I find myself struggling with being able to effectively plan workload over time. For example, one of the books in front of me I should be reading for a presentation in about two weeks, another will influence the work we are doing with our leadership training, but those classes don't start again until next school year. So, I choose to blog and wait until deadlines get closer when I then seem to find it easier to focus. For some in the Teaching and Learning Department it is almost a joke, my waiting to plan for presentations that are jointly delivered with them. They worry about the over all quality of the presentation if I end up as a weak link.

I find myself worrying about this behavior more than ever. As I reflect I wonder:

• If I am perceived as a weak link. That would not be good.
• If I see this as a badge of honor, you know, I don't need to spend the amount of time that you do, stop stressing about it. That would not be good.
• If my behavior is influencing the quality of my work, how much better and how much more could I do if I could change this behavior? That would not be good.
• If this has always been how I approach my work or has it changed with changing job responsibilities or maturation (aging) over time.

I know that there are some big deadlines in the near future with plans that need to be presented for board approval, architects to hire, presentations at our summer tech conference to plan for (more on this later), retreat planning, evaluation conferences to plan for and schedule, and . . .

Yet, here I am blogging and it feels good. Must be something about this blogging stuff or maybe it's more about the other stuff. Can you help? What do you think? Are you deadline driven because that is simply the nature of our work? Do you work from priority lists that identify time commitments for each project or do you jump from one to another? Should I worry about it?

I think I will work on that book for the presentation in about two weeks, it just seems like the right thing to do after this post. It may be the first step in changing behavior because one vital behavior that would influence the change is actually picking up the book. Here goes.