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I live and die by deadlines at my gig. I view deadlines as being etched in
stone. Admittedly sometimes they get re-etched, but not by me - that's
just the project itself floating. But wherever they set them, I never miss
them. Period. I expect the same of my team members.
BUT...
In order to never miss them, I adjust the scope of my efforts and my final
expectations to be in proportion to the time allotted.
Want it done in three weeks? You got it. Give me six weeks and it will be
even better, but I'll give you SOMETHING in three.
The trick is to manage your efforts so that - for example - a ten-chapter
manual ends up with ten chapters of equal quality, not a manual with five
strong chapters followed by five sketchy chapters that were thrown
together at the last minute, and which are not as good or thorough as the
first five. You have to manage the time you put into the document, making
sure you leave enough time to compose the whole thing.
I learned to do this in a trial-by-fire situation, when the deadline on a
challenging manual I was writing got chopped in half. After overcoming the
initial shock of being told of this edict, I scaled down my efforts and
goals for the manual, and still managed to publish a pretty decent doc
within deadline.
Deadlines are my friend. They let me know exactly what's expected of me,
and also let me know when I'll be free to start the next project.
Keith Cronin
I'm hooked on phonics. But I'm getting help.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A new book on Single Sourcing has been released by William Andrew
Publishing: _Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation_
is now available at: http://www.williamandrew.com/titles/1491.html.
Help Authoring Seminar 2003, coming soon to a city near you! Attend this
educational and affordable one-day seminar covering existing and emerging
trends in Help authoring technology. See http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l2.
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