There is nothing like looking at your clock and realizing
you have less than an hour to complete a project before it’s due. For me, few
things induce panic than an approaching deadline. I truly believe there are two
types of people in this world: the first type is those individuals that buy
their Christmas gifts in March. You go to their home for Easter, and while
snooping in the guest room, you find a festive cornucopia of yule time gifts.
Not only bought, but wrapped in snowflakes and reindeer glory, ready for the
holidays, a mere 8 months away. The other type, of which my husband is one, are
those last minutes, Christmas Eve shoppers that thrive under the pressure of
the deadline looming before them. My husband swears that shopping on Christmas
Eve inspires him to only consider the best gifts for each of his loved ones. (I
think it has more to do with the fact that his wife and children are terrible
snoops when it comes to presents.)
In university, I shared a dorm room with a last minute
achiever. Her theory was that by waiting until the last possible opportunity, she
would have plenty of time to percolate thoughts and ideas and theories on how
best to complete her essay. Apparently, the local pub served as an incubator
for this thought germination process.
Now this is fine and dandy for some folk, I’m just not one
of them. And it always surprises and yes, baffles my wee little mind, how many
people use this operandous waitus
approach. I vividly remember being stuck in Grey Nun’s hospital on bed rest while
pregnant with my second son and having a nurse come in and ask if they could
borrow one of the baby name books I had. Of course, I already had a girl’s and
a boy’s name picked out (with options a, b and c) pretty much since the second
line appeared on the pee stick. It was hard for me to understand how only once
the mother was in labour, some couples thought, “Hey, I guess this kid will
need a name”. Just imagine her screaming during a contraction “Honey, what do
you think of the name George?” Apparently, some couples think a name would just
come to them when they first lay eyes on their newborn. My sons are thankful we
didn’t take that approach or “Slimy Cone Head Smith” would be our eldest. (His
head has since returned to the shape it was intended but at 12 the slime is
still often present!)
Now my point to all this rambling is that when it comes to
things like hunting for work or applying for Employment Insurance, one method
is without a doubt more successful. If you wait until the little red dial on your
bank account is hovering over empty to apply for EI, you just might find
yourself stranded on the side of the road of life, waiting a month or more for
someone to come with a jerry can of funds. It typically takes six or more weeks
to even get approved for employment insurance, so unless your landlord doesn’t
care about the deadline for paying rent, you might want to get on that as soon
as you can. Same goes for job hunting. I do have clients come in and tell me
they need help writing a resume so they can apply for a job. I ask what their
deadline is, they say they have one week left of EI, I sit there, silently
screaming in my head. Same silent screaming occurs (okay sometimes not silent)
when someone calls and says “Hey Gaylene, I need help with a cover letter for
this job I saw last week.” Eight times out of ten they tell me the deadline for
the job is 5:00 quitting time, that very day.
“Hello! You have known about this for seven days and you
leave it for the last minute?! Don’t you understand how the world works? Murphy
will be showing up with his great big time sucking law.”
I promise we will run out of toner, my computer will freeze,
the email address will be wrong and your application won’t make deadline. (Your
career coach might also have a wee break from reality in the form of gentle
sobbing and rocking.)
In the great big grown up world known as employment,
deadlines don’t tend to be optional. Supervisors really don’t like giving
extensions and career and employment coaches really do need more than ten
minutes to write a targeted cover letter.
Please take a tiny piece of advice from a wife that has received
a sweater with a kitten printed on it thanks to her husband’s Christmas Eve
shopping; don’t leave things to the last moment. Inspiration won’t always come,
the printer may break down, the dog might eat, or vomit, on your assignment, or
you might get run over by a Pokémon Go hunter. Always best to leave yourself
some extra time.
So here’s to hoping you meet all your deadlines. I have to
run now. My deadline for this article is today at 5:00.
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