See all the blowing going on in that picture ? That doesn’t even compare to what went on last week when I completely blew my Thursday deadline. Consider this a post on what NOT to do, because I strongly advise against ever letting that happen.
First, I thought for some reason that the articles were due on Friday. I didn’t realize my error until my probably very confused contact had left the office for the day on Thursday. Awesome. But the thing is, I would have been late anyway, because I still had barely made any progress by the end of the day on Friday. In fact, I didn’t even finish until the end of the day TODAY. I don’t know what is wrong with me! I never move this slow, and when it comes to my business, I’m never this irresponsible (I have to admit, I do tend to let the laundry pile up at home).
I e-mailed my contact on Thursday night before I went to bed, after I sent two of the five articles that had been due that day, and let her know that (a) I was a moron, (b) I was sorry, and (c) I was trying to get the articles to her by COB Friday. No response. (And the Friday thing SO didn’t happen.) So of course I spent the whole weekend thinking, “Great, now she hates me, they’re so going to fire me, why am I such a dummy, etc., etc., etc.” And of course I continued to make no progress on the work. It was like pulling teeth.
Finally today I got them all in, but haven’t heard anything back. I’ve never returned anything to them LATE before, so I’m just dreading the response when she comes back in tomorrow and is ready to, gulp, deal with me. For the first time ever, I’m afraid to send my invoice. I’ve never been afraid to send my invoice before. I can’t tell if it’s me overreacting and projecting or me channeling the client…
In the scheme of things, it’s really not that big a deal. No one died. The building didn’t burn down. The press didn’t explode. I doubt it even made a dent in the production schedule since my stuff seldom gets processed until a week or so after I get it in. But I’m still freaking out. Rest assured, THAT will never happen again. This is the worst feeling! Don’t do it.
Save yourselves.
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It happens – I was supposed to have a report in for one of the VP’s of the company I work for and it did not happen. I apologized (profusely), was not fired, and we all moved on. I am sure that this will blow over.
And if you want to talk laundry!! If I wasn’t so ashamed I would post a pic of my laundry room to make you feel better. Hmmm, maybe I should be doing THAT instead of blogging? Nah, it can wait :)
Thank God I’m not the only one! There must be something in the air this week. I just had a somewhat similar experience today, but it was half a mind over matter thing. Mine was a situation I know now that I needed to get out from under, but hopefully your client won’t be too terribly unhappy with you!
Kristen,
1st – Exhale
2nd – Take a long bubble bath
3rd – I will email you
Deb
A friend told me Mercury was in retrograde. I don’t know anything about astrology, but she says it means that communications will be messed up and/or difficult. And that certainly seems true for me this past week or so.
Have you figured out what got in your way to meeting those deadlines? That’s going to be the best way to make yourself feel better, because you’ll have removed an obstacle and won’t worry about the same thing happening again.
(Mercury Retrograde messes up the actual sending of articles via internet and communication, but shouldn’t get in the way of the actual writing — but it also depends where Mercury sits in your chart).
Take a deep breath. You were pro-active in dealing with the situation, you took responsibility, and that will count for a lot.
I rely on my enormous desk blotter calendar (which I hang on the wall) and that’s kept deadline confusion to a minimum.
It’ll work out. Hang in there.
I agree. It’s always more painful to be late and have to deal with that than it is to just get it together and meet the deadline in the first place. That said, I know from experience. ;)
I have the cure for missed deadlines. It works like a charm.
I offer an on-time guarantee. If the work doesn’t show up as scheduled, the client doesn’t pay another dime for the project.
They love it. Sometimes I hate it. I usually stay on schedule, though.
It can be tough, but I hate missing deadlines.
CDB
Yeah! When I write fast, I can write really fast. But, then I get it then slow phases where everything seems to take twice as long as I thought it would. What cause that anyway?
Here’s hoping the client understands!
Thanks for all of the encouragement, y’all. I really appreciate it.
BTW, I figured out why I thought everything was due on Friday. I received it Thursday, but didn’t have a chance to review the files until Friday afternoon, which is when they really hit my radar. Aha.
kk