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Arbitrary deadlines are the enemy of creativity, according to Harvard research

Time can feel like the enemy to an employee in any role, and in any industry, but it’s most acutely threatening to creative types.

We may tease them for their diva-like behaviors when they feel persecuted by a deadline, but we have to admit that “develop an amazing new idea” is not something that slides into your schedule, like pick up lunch or respond to new clients. Nor can systems be tweaked and extra hands hired to help hit a goal that requires innovation, the way they can when mundane busy work is piling up. And yet deadlines are a fact of life for any company that wants to stay competitive.

In a recent  Harvard Business School podcast,  professor Teresa Amabile, whose academic career has focused on individuals, teams, and creativity, offers some guidance for managers who struggle to support or coax their creative talent. She explains that although the creative process itself can’t be controlled, certain structures can set up the conditions to move it along. Here’s how.

Aim for low to medium time pressures

When possible, managers should avoid tight deadlines for creative projects. In her work, Amabile found that creative teams can produce ideas on a deadline, and creative people may  feel productive on high-pressured days, but their ideas won’t be inspired.

Scholars of time have found similar results in their research. Creative work operates on “event time, ” meaning it always requires as much time as needed to organically get the job done. (Think of novel writers or other artists.) Other types of work operate on “clock time,” and are aligned with scheduled events. (A teacher obeys classroom hours and the semester calendar, for instance. An Amazon warehouse manager knows the number of customer orders that can be fulfilled in an hour.)

The more that creative people can feel they have some expansive period to work, the better able they are to be inventive.

Make the mission clear

Amabile’s research turned up one exception to the rule about oppressive deadlines hindering ingenuity: when a manager could convince the creator of the need for speed.

“Help people understand the meaning of their work,” she says, and they’ll be more likely to think creatively. Amabile calls it “being on a mission.”

“There were some instances where people were under time pressure, where they absolutely understood the need for the time pressure like a competitor was about to come out with a product just like theirs and they had to get there first, ” she explains, “or there was a desperate customer in need, there’s a desperate societal need in some cases.” In such circumstances, she found, creativity was more likely to flourish than when there was no sense of a mission.

Let them have some alone time, and mental space

Creative people need another scarce commodity: mental space. Working in a large team and constantly collaborating as a group doesn’t allow a person the clarity of mind to solve problems with fresh ingenious ideas. “Alone time or working with just one close collaborator seemed to be the key under the low time pressure conditions,” says Amabile.

Creative people, she adds, “have to be protected. They have to be isolated in a way, from all the other stuff that comes up during a work day. They can’t be called into meetings that are unrelated to this serious problem that they’re trying to address.”

This recipe can’t guarantee that your imaginative geniuses will perform, but it greatly improves the odds they will.

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Debunking the Myth: Do Deadlines Destroy Creativity?

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on Published: May 17, 2023  - Last updated: July 31, 2023

Categories Creativity

Deadlines are an essential part of our daily lives. They help us stay on track, prioritize our work, and meet our deadlines. However, deadlines can also hurt our creativity. While they can be a great motivator, they can also create stress, force us to rush, and eliminate all other options.

Research has shown that the closer a deadline is, the less open we are to outside ideas, which are the lifeblood of creativity. Deadlines can also lessen creativity, kill brain cells, and debilitate our overall well-being. This is because the deadline pressure can make us focus on finishing the task rather than coming up with creative ideas.

In this article, we will explore whether deadlines destroy creativity. We will examine the research on this topic, look at how deadlines can impact our creativity, and provide some practical tips on balancing deadlines with the need for creativity. Whether you are a writer, artist, or entrepreneur, this article will help you understand the role of deadlines in your creative process and how to use them to your advantage.

The Relationship Between Deadlines and Creativity

The effect of deadlines on creativity.

Deadlines are often seen as a necessary evil in the creative process. On the one hand, they can help to provide structure and focus to a project. However, on the other hand, they can also be a source of stress and anxiety, which can negatively impact creativity.

Research has suggested that deadlines can positively and negatively affect creativity. On the positive side, deadlines can help to motivate individuals to work more efficiently and effectively. They can also help provide a sense of urgency, which can lead to innovative ideas.

However, deadlines can also have adverse effects on creativity. When individuals are under pressure to meet a deadline, they may feel rushed and unable to explore all of the possible avenues for a project fully. This can lead to a lack of unique and innovative ideas and a decline in overall creative skills.

The Role of Pressure in Creativity

Pressure can be both a positive and negative force in the creative process. When individuals are under pressure, they may feel more motivated to work quickly and efficiently. This can lead to the generation of innovative ideas and the development of unique solutions to complex problems.

However, pressure can also be a source of stress and anxiety, which can negatively impact creativity. When individuals are under too much pressure, they may feel overwhelmed and unable to focus on the task. This can lead to declining creative skills and a lack of innovative ideas.

To balance the positive and negative effects of pressure, it is important to set realistic deadlines that provide enough time for individuals to explore all of the possible avenues for a project fully. Additionally, managers should create a supportive and collaborative environment that encourages creativity and innovation rather than focusing solely on meeting deadlines.

The Science of Deadlines and Creativity

The biology of creativity.

Creativity is a complex process involving different brain areas working together. According to research by Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School, creativity is influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors are related to personal motivation, while extrinsic factors are related to external factors such as deadlines.

The brain is a complex organ responsible for many functions, including creativity. Studies have shown that different brain areas are activated during the creative process. For example, the prefrontal cortex is responsible for executive functions such as planning and decision-making, while the temporal lobe is responsible for memory and language.

The Psychology of Deadlines and Creativity

Deadlines can be a powerful motivator for creativity but can also be a source of stress and anxiety. When we are under pressure to meet a deadline, our brains produce cortisol, a stress hormone that can interfere with our ability to think clearly and creatively.

However, research has also shown that moderate stress levels can enhance creativity. According to a study by Harvard Business School, low to medium time pressures can increase creativity by providing a sense of urgency and focus.

Procrastination is another factor that can affect creativity. While some people thrive under pressure, others may become overwhelmed and struggle to develop creative solutions. In these cases, it may be helpful to break down the task into smaller, more manageable parts or to set intermediate deadlines to stay on track.

The relationship between deadlines and creativity is complex and depends on various factors. While deadlines can be a powerful motivator for some people, they can also be a source of stress and anxiety for others. By understanding the biology and psychology of creativity, we can better understand how to optimize the creative process and use deadlines to our advantage.

The Impact of Deadlines on Productivity

Deadlines are an essential part of any project, and they can significantly impact productivity. While some people thrive under the pressure of a deadline, others find it stifling and counterproductive. In this section, we will explore the impact of deadlines on productivity, including the importance of time management and the role of discipline in meeting deadlines.

The Importance of Time Management

One of the most critical factors in meeting deadlines is time management. Proper time management can help ensure you have enough time to complete all the tasks required to meet the deadline. This involves breaking the project into smaller, more manageable tasks and setting realistic timelines for each task.

Effective time management also involves prioritizing tasks based on their importance and urgency. This can help ensure that you focus your time and energy on the most critical tasks and not waste time on less important ones.

The Role of Discipline in Meeting Deadlines

Discipline is another crucial factor in meeting deadlines. Sticking to a schedule and resisting the temptation to procrastinate takes discipline. Developing good habits, such as starting work early and avoiding distractions, can help you stay disciplined and focused on meeting your deadlines.

Another important aspect of discipline is learning to say no to distractions. This can include avoiding social media, turning off your phone, and avoiding other distractions that can take you away from your work.

The Outcome Cycle

The outcome cycle is a process that involves setting goals, creating a plan, taking action, and evaluating the results. Deadlines are essential to this cycle because they help create a sense of urgency and focus that can help you stay on track and achieve your goals.

However, it is important to remember that deadlines are not the only factor in the outcome cycle. Setting realistic goals, creating a solid plan, and taking consistent action to achieve your desired outcomes is essential.

Approaches to Meeting Deadlines

There are several approaches to meeting deadlines, including technology, delegation, and collaboration. Technology can be a powerful tool in helping you stay organized and on track. In contrast, delegation and collaboration can help you leverage the skills and expertise of others to achieve your goals.

Ultimately, the key to meeting deadlines is to find an approach that works best for you and your team. By focusing on time management, discipline, the outcome cycle, and effective approaches to meeting deadlines, you can increase your productivity and achieve your desired outcomes.

The Negative Effects of Deadlines on Creativity

Deadlines are a common aspect of work, but they can harm creativity. Here are some ways in which deadlines can hurt creativity.

The Impact of Stress on Creativity

Deadlines can create stress, which can be detrimental to creativity. When stressed, our brains release cortisol, the stress hormone, making it harder to concentrate and think clearly. This can lead to fatigue, which in turn can make us less creative. Additionally, stress can cause us to focus too much on the deadline rather than the task at hand, which can further inhibit creativity.

The Effect of Deadlines on Mental Space

Deadlines can also occupy mental space, making it difficult to think creatively. When focused on meeting a deadline, we may not have the mental bandwidth to develop new and innovative ideas. This can be especially true when deadlines are tight, as we may feel pressured to develop something quickly rather than exploring different options.

One study conducted by Harvard Business School found that arbitrary deadlines can be detrimental to creativity. The study found that when employees were given more time to complete a task, they could come up with more creative solutions than when given a tight deadline.

Deadlines can also create a fear of failure, further inhibiting creativity. When focused on meeting a deadline, we may be more concerned with avoiding mistakes than taking risks and exploring new ideas.

While deadlines are a necessary part of work, they can hurt creativity. By being aware of these potential drawbacks, we can work to mitigate their effects and foster a more creative work environment.

The Benefits of Deadlines on Creative Projects

Deadlines have long been seen as the enemy of creativity, but recent research shows that they can positively affect innovation and creative projects. Here are a few reasons why:

The Role of Deadlines in Innovation

Deadlines can be a powerful motivator for innovation. When there’s a clear deadline in place, teams are more likely to focus their efforts and work efficiently to meet the deadline. This can help spur creative thinking and generate new ideas that might not have emerged without the pressure of a deadline.

In addition, deadlines can help teams stay focused on their mission and goals. By setting a deadline for a particular campaign or project, teams can ensure they work towards a specific objective and avoid getting sidetracked by other tasks or distractions.

The Effect of Deadlines on Creative Projects

Deadlines can also help creative projects progress more smoothly. When there’s a set deadline in place, teams can establish a routine and work towards making steady progress over time. This can help prevent projects from getting bogged down or stalled out and can help ensure that they’re completed on time.

In addition, deadlines can help teams analyze their progress and adjust as needed. By setting smaller deadlines, teams can track their progress and identify areas where they need to change or improve their approach.

While deadlines can sometimes feel like a burden, they can be a valuable tool for creativity and innovation. By setting clear deadlines and working towards them, teams can stay focused, make steady progress, and generate new ideas.

In conclusion, the relationship between deadlines and creativity is not simple. While deadlines can be a great motivator, they can also lead to stress and a decline in creativity. The research conducted by the Harvard Business School suggests that deadlines can be helpful when they are well-designed and allow for some flexibility.

It is important to note that creativity is a complex process that involves many factors beyond deadlines. Creativity requires a conducive environment, a sense of purpose, and the freedom to experiment and take risks. Therefore, it is not fair to blame deadlines alone for destroying creativity.

Instead, it is important to balance the benefits and drawbacks of deadlines. One way to do this is to set realistic deadlines that allow for some flexibility and creativity. Another way is to provide a supportive environment that encourages creativity and provides resources and feedback.

Ultimately, the key to fostering creativity is to recognize that it is a valuable asset that requires time, effort, and support. By understanding the nuances of the relationship between deadlines and creativity, we can create a culture that values productivity and innovation.

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Do Deadlines Ruin Creativity: Quick Explanation In 4 Steps

In the vibrant mosaic of contemporary life, deadlines stand as prominent landmarks guiding our journey through an extensive matrix of tasks, obligations, and aspirations. They are more than mere time markers; they provide an essential framework that enables us to navigate the seas of commitments, calibrate our efforts, and quantify our progress.

Yet, as we ascend to the zenith of a creative revolution, where novel ideas and innovative solutions fuel the engines of growth, it becomes increasingly crucial to examine the role of deadlines in the creative process. Are these time-bound markers stifling the very wellsprings of our ingenuity, or could they be the catalysts that ignite the spark of creativity? This comprehensive guide seeks to explore this intriguing dichotomy, offering insights into the complex and nuanced relationship between deadlines and creativity. So, let’s find out do deadlines ruin creativity.

The Dual Role of Deadlines in Creativity

The influence of deadlines on creativity is akin to the transformative power of pressure on carbon: the right amount can metamorphose a nondescript substance into a priceless diamond, while an excessive force could crush it to dust. This insightful analogy illustrates the double-edged nature of creativity.

On one hand, creativity blossoms in environments of freedom and seemingly chaotic experimentation. It requires room to breathe, to explore, and to make mistakes.

Yet, on the other hand, creativity isn’t merely about uncontrolled divergence. It needs structure and constraints to give it form and purpose. Deadlines can provide these boundaries, but when they become overwhelming, the pressure might kill the creative spirit instead of nurturing it.

Advantages of Deadlines: Fueling the Creative Engine

Deadlines, when appropriately set and managed, can act as compelling stimulants for creativity. Their effect can be likened to a powerful fuel, one that feeds the creative engine and helps drive it to heights of ingenuity that might have otherwise remained untapped.

One of the most prominent advantages of deadlines is the sense of urgency they instill. This urgency can effectively narrow down our focus, helping us to streamline our thoughts, prioritize our tasks, and utilize our resources more efficiently. By establishing a clear endpoint, deadlines lay down a definitive path, offering a structural framework that directs our creative energies towards achieving a tangible objective. This ability to focus is particularly valuable when we are swamped with a myriad of ideas, and it’s difficult to decide where to start. Deadlines provide a starting point and a finish line, framing our creative efforts within a manageable timeframe.

Furthermore, the psychological impact of an approaching deadline often triggers an adrenaline rush . This intense experience, akin to a mental ‘fight or flight’ response, can significantly enhance our cognitive abilities, enabling quick problem-solving and fostering innovative thinking. The looming deadline can make us think outside the box, pushing us to find unique solutions in a bid to beat the clock. This heightened state of alertness and the accompanying rush can lead to eureka moments, birthing ideas and solutions that might have otherwise been overlooked.

Deadlines also foster accountability and discipline, two key ingredients in the recipe for creative success. Knowing that a project or task needs to be completed within a specific timeframe encourages us to work diligently and persistently, qualities that are vital for any creative pursuit. Deadlines can keep procrastination at bay, thereby ensuring a consistent engagement with our creative work.

Moreover, deadlines can motivate us to make decisions and move forward. In the realm of creativity, it’s easy to get stuck in a loop of endless refinement, forever chasing the mirage of perfection. Deadlines, however, compel us to take decisive action, to choose one idea over another, and to bring our creative visions into reality.

Lastly, deadlines can facilitate a sense of accomplishment and progress. Each met deadline is a step forward, a small victory that boosts our confidence and validates our creative abilities. This can be an invaluable source of motivation, fueling our passion to create and innovate further.

The Drawbacks of Deadlines: The Creativity Suppressors

Despite their potential to stimulate creativity, deadlines can, in some cases, also inhibit our creative spirit. The very characteristics that make deadlines effective – their sense of urgency, their demand for focus, and their inexorable ticking – can sometimes become counterproductive, suppressing rather than promoting creativity.

A significant drawback of deadlines lies in the stress and anxiety they often induce. Creativity, by its very nature, thrives in an environment of calm and tranquility, where the mind is free to wander and explore new avenues of thought. However, an impending deadline can create a state of hyper-focus, making us overly conscious of the ticking clock. This heightened state of stress can result in a ‘tunnel vision’ effect, where our field of vision narrows down, limiting our ability to think broadly and approach problems from different angles. Instead of fostering out-of-the-box thinking, deadlines can lead us to resort to safe, tried-and-tested solutions just to meet the time constraints.

In addition to causing stress, deadlines can also compromise the incubation period, a vital phase of the creative process. During the incubation period, our subconscious mind continues to process and refine ideas, often leading to valuable insights and breakthroughs. However, under the pressure of a looming deadline, we may not afford ourselves this vital time to let ideas percolate and mature, rushing instead to produce a result, which can lead to superficial and less innovative outcomes.

Deadlines can also stifle experimentation, an essential element of creativity. When working against the clock, we’re less likely to take risks or explore unconventional paths. The fear of wasting time and failing to meet the deadline may deter us from trying novel approaches or learning new skills, both of which could potentially lead to more creative solutions.

Moreover, deadlines can contribute to burnout, particularly when they are unrealistic or too tightly packed. Consistent high levels of stress and pressure can lead to physical and mental exhaustion, reducing our capacity for creative thought and undermining our overall productivity and wellbeing.

Lastly, the focus on achieving results within a strict timeframe can sometimes divert our attention from the process itself, turning a creative task into a mere item to be checked off a list. This shift in focus from process to product can diminish the joy of creation, making it a stressful chore rather than an engaging, enriching experience.

Striking the Balance: Harnessing Deadlines for Creative Success

The delicate dance between deadlines and creativity requires a harmonious balance, a sweet spot that combines the liberating spirit of creativity with the grounding reality of time constraints. Techniques such as time-blocking, where certain time slots are dedicated to focused, deadline-driven work and others for unrestrained ideation, can help strike this balance. Additionally, fostering a growth mindset is essential.

This perspective embraces challenges as opportunities for growth, maintains a positive attitude towards stress, and reframes deadlines from daunting obstacles to useful prompts for creativity. The goal isn’t to escape deadlines but to use them as strategic tools to stoke the flames of creativity rather than dousing them.

In conclusion, does the tick-tock of deadlines annihilate the flame of creativity? The answer is not binary. It delicately teeters on the individual’s response to pressure, the contextual factors surrounding the creative endeavor, and the manner in which deadlines are implemented and navigated. Deadlines can serve as both a stimulant and an inhibitor to creativity. They can spark a sense of urgency that drives innovative problem-solving, yet they can also instigate a level of stress that inhibits fresh, groundbreaking thinking.

The key doesn’t lie in eliminating deadlines from our lives; instead, it’s about wielding them skillfully and mindfully. Properly harnessed, deadlines can unlock our creative potentials rather than limit them. The challenge is not in the unyielding passage of time, but in how we choreograph our imaginative ballet to its rhythm.

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Daedalus Howell

Life, Storied.

Do Deadlines Kill Creativity?

Listen here .

Amabile suggests avoiding the “treadmill effect” wherein you’re running all day due to distractions and sequestering yourself into a quiet place. Brings to mind Jack Keroauc locking himself in a closet writing 10,000 words in a sitting whilst losing 10 pounds in the process. Albeit, he was on benzedrine but the general idea is the same. Also, Amabile says, “If you’re a procrastinator, maybe the most important change you can make is an attitude adjustment,” which raised the hackles of at least two commenters on the Marketplace blog where this bit was archived . As MJWilco replied, “Don’t insult us with simplistic advice. An ‘attitude adjustment?’ If that was true, I would have fixed all my problems in grade school.”

Love it. So, the question at hand is, “Do deadlines work for you?” Amabile says that “When you work under the gun, creativity is usually the first casualty.” Or does it just improve your aim?

Here are some of my previous thoughts on the notion: How to Achieve Goals as a Deadline Junky & 5 Time Management Techniques for Writers

For your brilliant curation:

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LESSWRONG LW

Do deadlines make us less creative.

This post is crossposted from my blog . If you liked this post, subscribe to Lynette's blog to read more -- I only crosspost about half my content to other platforms.

Occasionally, my clients struggle to get things done, but worry that setting themselves deadlines will make them less creative.

Is this a reasonable worry?

To find out, let’s look at the psychology literature on pressure and creativity.

There’s a classic psychology experiment called the “candle problem”. Participants are shown matches, a box of thumbtacks, and a candle as in the picture below. The experimenter then instructs the participants to mount the candle on the wall using the available materials. "The problem is considered solved when the candle can be firmly affixed to the wall, burn properly, and does not drip wax on the table or floor."

If you’ve heard of this problem before, you probably know the answer. However, if this is new to you, take thirty seconds to try solving it before reading on.

If it’s still difficult, just imagine the thumbtacks on the table next to the box as in the picture below. Once you do that, suddenly it’s easy to guess that you should tack the empty box to the wall and put the candle inside it.

When the box is filled with tacks, our brain writes it off as a “tack holder”, instead of seeing it as a possible “candle holder.” This is called “functional fixedness.” It takes creativity to see an object being used in one way, and then break that default association to work out what other uses it could be put to.

This experiment is designed to study creativity, particularly the ability to find unusual or “out of the box” solutions to a problem. The experimenter can easily randomize whether the participants see the box full of tacks or empty (i.e. hard or easy creative thinking), plus add whatever other interactions they want to test.

Which brings us to the point of this whole experiment—how long does it take the participants to find the solution under different conditions?

In one study , the experimenters used a simple 2x2 design: participants were randomized so that half saw a picture of tacks in a box (which requires more creativity), and the rest saw tacks on the table and an empty box (which makes the puzzle easier). Half were told they’d receive a $20 bonus if they were the fastest in the group ($5 if they were in the top 25%); the other half heard no mention of a bonus.

Now, adjusted for inflation since 1962, $20 is almost $175 dollars. So, participants had a strong motive to complete the task faster when offered that bonus.

Only when they saw the empty box. When the picture showed an empty box, participants solved the problem about a minute faster if they were offered a reward (taking on average 3.67 minutes, compared to 4.99 minutes for the non-rewarded group). If instead the participant saw the box full of tacks and was offered a reward, they took over three minutes longer than those who saw a full box but never heard about a reward (11.08 vs 7.41 minutes respectively).

What’s happening here?

The basic theory is that when you add pressure, people get better at tasks they already know how to do, but worse at doing novel tasks . This finding has been repeated in studies that use financial rewards, performance evaluation, and even self-evaluation as the source of pressure.

Think of it as tunnel vision. When you are particularly focused on one problem or motivated to get it done quickly, you get better at doing what you already know exactly how to do. But you get worse at looking around for novel solutions, because you get stuck thinking about the problem in one narrow way.

Are these findings sound?

I didn’t find any red flags: googling one of the papers plus the keywords “myth” or “replication” didn’t turn up anything damning, and the Wikipedia page on functional fixedness didn’t highlight reasons to doubt the theory. It’s a neatly-packaged theory but it hasn’t been headline news—so I’m not applying the additional skepticism I add for surprisingly interesting findings.

That said, there are some yellow flags: it’s mostly an older body of literature, which might mean worse methods. For example, the study I described included only male psychology undergrads. However, there is a 2009 study that came to the same conclusion.

Possibly we should be skeptical of all psychology findings, given that some attempts to replicate studies can reproduce less than half of the original findings. Even when studies replicate, the effect size often changes wildly. One study found that effect sizes decreased by 50% on average when replicated.

I don’t think we need to toss out these results completely, though. I wouldn’t be surprised if the effect size decreased, but I’d rate this finding as slightly more likely to replicate than the average psych study. 

Are these findings meaningful ?

Even psych studies that replicate don’t always matter - the real world impact is so tiny that it’s not worth implementing. In this case, I revisited these studies because a few clients were worried that setting deadlines would make them less creative. Is this true?

My short answer? “Probably yes, but it’s still often worth setting the deadlines.”

If we can take the candle problem study at face value (which is a big assumption), then adding pressure made participants 50% slower at finding the answer. That’s pretty important, if it generalizes.

However, there are two big caveats that make me inclined to recommend deadlines anyway.

First, participants found the solution faster under pressure when it was easier to figure out what to do. Do you have a decent idea of what you’re supposed to do, but are struggling to focus on it and get it done quickly? Then adding pressure should speed you up, according to this study.

Second, while for the harder task participants in the high-pressure condition did take longer than those in the low-pressure condition, the participants in both conditions were under enough pressure to be actively working the whole time. In contrast, what if you’re a PhD student struggling to sit down to write your thesis? Or a knowledge worker struggling to make time for important-but-not-urgent work instead of answering more emails?

In that case, maybe adding pressure makes you go slower than if you were doing the task without pressure, but probably not slower than you go if you’re not spending time on the task at all .

For most tasks that you’re struggling to put enough time towards, I expect the benefits of deadlines to outweigh even working at half speed occasionally.

There’s a tradeoff between carving out time to slowly explore and setting up incentives to quickly get things done.

If you’re already working long hours, feel free to take a long walk to puzzle over a problem without pressure. Famous mathematician Richard Hamming set aside every Friday afternoon after lunch to think "great thoughts." This was his time to ask, “How will computers change science?”, “How can I change that path?”, and other big questions. Reserving that time probably helped him create the mental space needed to be unusually creative.

So if you’re constantly trying to cram eighteen tasks into fifteen minutes and wondering why you aren’t having any new ideas, then feel free to take some pressure off. Make time to be bored .

However, if you’re struggling to put enough time towards your tasks, don’t let concerns about your creativity become an excuse to avoid any pressure to increase what you accomplish.

Note: I was treating the 2009 study as a psudo-replication. It's not a replication, but it's a later study on the same topic that found the same conclusion, which had allayed some of my concerns about old psychology research. However, I since looked deeper into Dan Ariely's work, and the number of accusations of fraud or academic misconduct makes me less confident in the study. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Ariely#Accusations_of_data_fraud_and_academic_misconduct

In that case, maybe adding pressure makes you go slower than if you were doing the task without pressure, but probably not slower than you go if you’re not spending time on the task at all.

There's also the body of research on incubation periods, showing that if you spend time not doing the task at all (while being aware of the task) you'll be more creative than if you get to the task immediately: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=prlinks&retmode=ref&id=19210055

How much you want to deliberately allow yourself slack, lack of pressure, and incubation seems heavily task dependent. The more creativity needed and the less clear consequences for time delay, the more you may want to put off having a deadline.

If the goal is to make your office beautiful, you may want to consider those tacks and box for a while. If the goal is to have light for the power outage that occured by nightfall, best to have a deadline.

I agree with the line of reasoning, but I'd probably err on the side of adding a deadline even for designing  your office -  if you want to make sure the task gets done at some point, setting the deadline a month away seems better than not having one at all. 

I tend to work in the reverse way - if I notice myself putting something off for too long, I add a deadline, but my default is to decide fresh each time what to do.

Interesting write-up, thank you for sharing it! 

I would argue that it might even be rational behaviour to "rush and try something stupid" if incentivised with a reward for being in the top 5% of participants. If your choices are between a method that may not work (pick a random method that just might work) but if it does work is fast and a method that is guaranteed to work (such as thinking it through deeply) but is slow then you just might maximise your expected earnings by doing the fast-but-risky approach.

Even more so, if you don't think you're in the smartest 5% of the group then you are pretty much guaranteed to not get the reward if you go down the slow-and-steady path - you'd be dominated by the smartest 5% who do that, so you're better off with a worse approach that has at least some chance of beating the group.

Simply put, for the majority of people I think the optimal strategy would be to try a risky move - and the case for this becomes stronger as the number of winners in a group decreases. Depending on how hard the task is, there are some people for whom the optimal strategy may be to think things through. Confidence may end up driving a large part of how people will navigate making that decision. Having an optimism bias (precisely, the belief that a great solution exists) in your decision-evaluations can sometimes be a great strategy as solutions that will likely not yield exceptional outcomes won't even be evaluated. 

I agree that adopting high variance strategies makes sense if you think you're going to fail, but I'm not sure the candle task has high variance strategies to adopt? It's a pretty simple task.   

The Pros and Cons of Deadlines

Deadlines can both motivate and stand in the way of completing goals..

Updated November 9, 2023 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• What Is Motivation?
• Find counselling near me
• Distant deadlines can cause procrastination and poor planning, whereas proximal deadlines inspire action.
• Complex goals are more likely to be completed when chunked into simpler tasks, each with its own deadline.
• Students generally don't like being assigned sub-deadlines, so give them some autonomy in deadline selection.

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. —Douglas Adams

Deep down inside, all of us know that, without deadlines, not a lot would get done in this world. It comes as no surprise that we attach deadlines to unpleasant experiences, like paying bills or doing taxes, but even actions with huge benefits can "whoosh by" without a deadline. In one experiment, adding a deadline to an interest-free loan for small business owners increased applications by 24 percent and loan receipt by more than 12 percent. Adding a second, “early bird” deadline increased applications by another 26 percent. Deadlines like these motivate action by eliciting a sense of time scarcity, which narrows our focus to the task at hand, stifling procrastination (sometimes) and triggering our fear of missing out.

So, it’s with good reason that we inundate students with deadlines, from early admission to the last day to apply to graduate. Along the way, there are deadlines for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), essays, scholarships, projects, internships, competitions, and more. But rarely do we consider how deadlines impact behavior, or how to optimize deadlines to help students achieve their goals. Luckily, behavioral science has much to say about the pros and cons of deadlines.

The Cure for, or Cause of, Procrastination?

Deadlines are often leveraged to inspire action and prevent procrastination. But this only works when deadlines are pressing. In one study, people given a gift certificate to a French café were more than twice as likely to use it when it expired in three weeks versus two months. Logically, more people should use the two-month certificate because they have more opportunities to do so, and any setback, like getting sick or going on vacation, shouldn’t stop them for the whole redemption period. But, when deadlines are too far into the future, procrastination seeps in and we often fail to act despite having more time to do so.

Distant deadlines can also change our behavior. Perhaps people with the two-month certificate stuck it in a drawer instead of on the fridge, making it less salient. Or they devised a far-off implementation intention (“I’ll use this next month when mom visits”) that fell through. Deadlines, in fact, are one reason why we regularly underestimate how long it will take to do things, known as the planning fallacy. Instead of planning how we’ll complete tasks starting from today, we work backward from the deadline, ignoring potential barriers and ultimately shorting ourselves on time.

Chunking and Deadlines

Unfortunately for our students, most deadlines are far away until they’re not. The final paper due in December feels distant in September. Applying to college isn’t that demanding until winter rolls around. The window for completing the FAFSA is nine months long! Our brains are simply not wired for this kind of future thinking, so we need to chunk these tasks into smaller pieces to create some urgency.

Chunking is the dissection of complex tasks into simpler ones and planning for each subtask. For example, registering for classes involves several steps, such as scheduling an advisor appointment, reading the course catalog, completing a credit audit, and more. Identifying each step provides a better sense of how long the whole process will take and allows you to set sub-deadlines instead of relying on a single, ultimate deadline. In fact, high-school seniors who used an app that chunked the FAFSA and set a deadline for each step were 22 percent more likely to complete the FAFSA and 80 percent more likely to receive federal aid .

Assigning Sub-deadlines

Thus far, the advice I’ve offered seems pretty straightforward: Break down complex tasks into manageable chunks and assign a deadline to each in order to harness the motivating quality of deadlines. However, assigning sub-deadlines requires a bit more finesse to maximize students’ performance. In one study, college students were paid to find 300 grammatical and spelling errors within three, 10-page texts. Students required to submit one text per week for three weeks spent 65 percent more time on task and earned about four times more rewards than students told to complete all of their work within three weeks. Students given weekly sub-deadlines, however, enjoyed the work significantly less than those given just the ultimate deadline. This difference may not matter much for meaningless proofreading, but if you’re trying to inspire students to fall in love with a subject, assigning sub-deadlines may be counterproductive.

An alternative is to encourage students to set their own sub-deadlines. Unfortunately, students tend not to optimize their time. In the previous study, students who created their own sub-deadlines earned about 60 percent as much as those who submitted weekly, and their enjoyment of the task fell between the other two groups.

Another study remedied these issues using what I call the “inception” method. College students were asked to build a crane using Lego. One group was given just the ultimate deadline (15 minutes), one group had to complete a section every five minutes, and the last group could create their own sub-deadlines, but each student accepted the default of every five minutes. The students who “chose” to finish a section every five minutes completed the third part more than 20 percent faster than the other two groups and, when given the opportunity to free play, spent more than twice as long building with Lego on their own as those students who had the five-minute sub-deadlines imposed upon them.

Making Deadlines Work for Your Students

From the time we enter school, deadlines are a constant in our lives, and perhaps no time more so than leading up to and during college. When determining deadlines for everything from classroom assignments to college scholarships, consider what behavioral science tells us about optimizing their utility.

• Remember that deadlines are just as important for activities that students enjoy and from which they will benefit as they are for activities that students find unpleasant and want to avoid. Leverage deadlines to help students thrive.
• Chunk complex processes into smaller steps and create sub-deadlines for each chunk. More proximal deadlines will inspire action and prevent procrastination.
• When possible, allow students to set their own deadlines, but with guardrails. Perhaps you can provide students with a deadline range (e.g., turn in your first draft the week of October 10th). Or set default deadlines that require a small amount of effort to change, dissuading students from going against your suggestions.

Ariely, D., & Wertenbroch, K. (2002). Procrastination, deadlines, and performance: Self-control by precommitment. Psychological Science, 13 (3), 219-224.

Burgess, M., Enzle, M. E., Schmaltz, R. (2004). Defeating the potentially deleterious effects of externally imposed deadlines: Practitioners’ rules-of-thumb. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30 (7), 868-877.

Shu, S. B., & Gneezy, A. (2010). Procrastination of enjoyable experiences. Journal of Marketing Research, 47 (5), 933-944.

Ross E. O'Hara, Ph.D. , is a behavioral researcher and he applies his expertise in behavioral science to develop scalable interventions that improve college student retention.

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Do Deadlines Foster or Kill Creativity?

A common method for getting productivity out of people is to set deadlines.

HBR contributor Elizabeth Grace Saunders promotes the use of deadlines , advising us to assign deadlines to work that matters.

So, if you want more productivity, then you should set tighter deadlines, right?

Setting tighter deadlines can actually HURT creativity and innovation. Unless people are performing purely rote tasks, this impacts the quality of their work.

The research shows us that the more stressful a deadline is, the less open you are to other ways of approaching the problem … The very moments when in organizations we want people to think outside the box, they can’t even see the box. Richard Boyatzis,  The Inner Workings of the Executive Brain

In the Handbook of Research on Leadership and Creativity , Scott G. Isaksen addresses the affects of time pressure on creativity in a chapter entitled “Leadership’s Role in Creative Climate Creation.” Isaksen shares research that affirms Boyatzis’ claim that high time pressure isn’t good for innovation. In some situations it helped when employees saw the time pressure as meaningful. It was also beneficial when leaders were supportive and gave positive feedback. Still, aggressive deadlines are generally unhealthy for doing innovative work. Research suggests that giving employees time to explore new ideas is more helpful than stressful deadlines.

Isaksen explains that leaders can influence idea time by:

• providing more time for tasks that demand non-routine work (but not too much) instead of assigning similar deadlines for routine and non-routine work;
• dedicating specific times for opportunity identification and idea-generation meetings versus asking employees to generate opportunities and ideas in addition to their day jobs;
• joining in when they see employees having a spontaneous conversation about exploring new ideas and telling them the appropriateness of these conversations versus sending verbal and non-verbal messages telling them to “get back to work.”

Even though Saunders’ HBR article encourages readers to use deadlines, she also emphasizes the importance of pacing yourself.

Instead of setting one final completion date, like a final exam at the end of the semester in college, create mini-deadlines for pieces of larger projects. This strategy can work especially well if you have team members to help you refine your work prior to presenting it to a larger audience. Set a deadline for an initial draft, a run through, a revised draft, etc.

So, deadlines are important… but overly-agressive deadlines can kill creativity and innovation.

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Do Deadlines Enhance or Destroy Creativity?

September 27, 2023

Are deadlines destroying creativity?

Read extempore points for topic “Do deadlines enhance or destroy creativity?”

Points to Remember:

Deadlines are destroying creativity

Deadlines are enhancing creativity

Extempore Topic: Do deadlines enhance or destroy creativity?

About the topic:-.

Deadlines are the end of task date that is provided to an employee by their employer/client. They need to deliver the end product on or before this deadline. Some individuals find it difficult to work under deadlines as it curbs their creativity. Whiles some thrive under the pressure of deadlines. 

Deadlines are destroying creativity:-

• With the pressure of deadlines, people feel rushed as they have to complete the work within a fixed period. This leads to a decline in creativity as the deadline limits the approaches one can take to get the outcome.
• A particular task can be accomplished in various ways. And more often than not the best outcome is the result of a long process. However, with deadlines, this approach is difficult because there is a set time to complete the task.
• Deadlines lead to a low-quality outcome.
• Many people get stressed under deadlines and are unable to work efficiently.
• Most creative individuals feel burnout and unmotivated when put on a deadline.

Creativity needs time, it is impossible to put out creative ideas when put on a time limit. The constant reminder of deadlines makes it difficult to think freely and experiment with new ideas. This in turn limits creativity, as people start looking for quicker ways to finish tasks. This also lowers the quality of work.

Deadlines are enhancing creativity:-

• Deadlines give us a push to finish the task on time.
• With a time limit, we are forced to look for a faster approach to finish the task. This is also a creative skill.
• Without a deadline, people start experimenting with new approaches. This will lead to a delay in the completion of the projects.
• Deadlines help us learn and improve our time management skills.

Many creative minds thrive under deadlines. The pressure of finishing the task on time leads them to take unique approaches and execute the task accordingly.

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Deadlines Aren't Killing Your Creativity, It's Your Approach 

As I begin to write this blog, I shudder as I look at the date, October 30, 2017. I managed to dig myself out of this month’s assignments of projects for our growing list of clients, but my time is almost up in my monthly contribution to writing a thought piece. I watch the time pass as I run through a mental list of topics that are important to me right now, but consistently draw a blank, ultimately adding stress but losing momentum.

Then, I realized I’m overthinking it. I’m ultimately losing my creativity because of the pressure of the deadline, and it certainly hasn’t been the first time. They say diamonds are created under pressure, but I strongly disagree; free-thinking, time management, and progress checkpoints are what cultivate a flawless F1 diamond. Creativity blossoms under a healthy lifestyle, point blank.

Create Mini Deadlines

If a project is large and daunting, it’s more likely to keep you up at night thinking about how much has to be done, rather than it being done itself. When the deadline begins looming in the horizon, you find yourself running around like a chicken without its head, scrambling to put something together that would be justifiably good but this happens that it’s not ultimately creative.

Many notable figures have proclaimed “The best way to get something done, is to begin” of course within their own variation. Instead of beginning and ending all at once, spread time for your project by breaking up the project in multiple mini-deadlines. For example, if you're creating content or designing material break it up into 3 steps: Conceptualize or draft, create, critique, then back to the drawing board for revisions. Be sure to leave room between the due date and revisions because you'll find that you could go back to the drawing board more than once. This lets you see your own progress as you near completion and prevents you from meeting everyone’s most vindictive enemy – procrastination. Moreover, it helps you find meaning in the pressure because you have a little goal within every task which helps you paint a larger picture that you want to achieve.

Isolate Yourself from Distractions

I can’t tell you a number of times I would go to the library back in college with the intention of working for 2 hours and going home, but would end up on Facebook during a 5-minute break and would ultimately browse the internet for the next half hour. Website blockers, such as this one , became my best friend because it let me reach my goal in an attainable amount of time, and reduced the need for all-nighters. Today, I find them to be just as important and relevant in the workplace.

Reduce distractions at work itself. Ask yourself, do you really need to go to a meeting? Often, I find that they’re just time-consuming and don’t let you think as clearly as you would in an isolated room. If you must bounce ideas off someone, find a coworker who understands the problem or task as much as you do to discuss ideas. Send updates to whoever is relevant but don’t block time out of your day for a project which would require multiple revisions anyways.

Recharge Your Batteries

Mental and physical health is essential to being productive. I cannot emphasize this enough. During lunch, incorporate a break to go on a walk. Get enough sleep, you can’t work properly with a foggy brain. Eat your vegetables and watch your sugar intake , especially at work. The last thing you want to have is a crash on a deadline heavy schedule.

If you’re working steadily for hours, take 5 minutes to stretch or to say hello to a co-worker or friend, you’ll find that when you come back to the desk you’ll feel more productive. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Inspiration

Almost 10 years ago, someone told me “Life passes you by while you’re looking at your phone” This has stuck with me for years. I think about it almost every day, especially if I’m traveling or a passenger in a car.  Grace Coddington , the Editor and Chief at Large of Vogue said in route, while on an interview in London “Keep your eyes open, you never know what will inspire you.” The point that I’m getting at is, be aware of your surroundings, they drive inspiration. Creativity, rarely if ever, comes from thin air.

If you're a designer, keep your eyes peeled for commercials, outfits, and even conversations. When you're working, your experiences or interactions with the world will likely appear in your designs. On the end of the creative spectrum, if you're a writer, analyze your content. Go back to the drawing board and look at metrics, see what's working and what isn't. You're likely to see trends with viewers interactions and it could push your content creation in a beneficial direction to all parties. 

Error Is Essential to Creativity

I took two semesters of Research & Development classes, which used to be the silliest and most liberating classes I could have possibly asked for. Using the information we had, we used to think of creative and wacky ideas which ultimately lead to innovation and productivity. I’m not saying that in a work setting you necessarily have the time or the luxury of being silly, but don’t be afraid to make mistakes because an incredible idea can come from your revisions. Rigid outlines are efficient, but they leave no room for creativity which could make your work stand out.

Instead, use the same method content writers would use to maximize optimization - look at the information you already have and analyze it. If you made mistakes, that's okay, but learn from them and use creativity to improve. The information you've already set forth to the world turns into valuable data that speaks volumes of the consumers, readers, and trends.

In closing, look at what’s been setting you back in terms of productivity and what’s been working. Being aware of the pressure of time isn’t what’s killing your creativity but rather your productivity. Live a healthy lifestyle, and refrain from letting the fear of a deadline consume you, because over the passing of time that fear is only going to get heavier. Remember, a sturdy house isn’t built overnight so set goals and revise as you see creative progress come together.

What Deadlines Are Doing To Your Creativity

On Assignment For HuffPost

Deadlines may be good for productivity, but creativity is another story.

Got a big deadline coming up on a creative project? You may be in trouble, according to one neuroscientist .

In an interview with The Washington Post, John Kounios of Drexel University said that working under a strict deadline can put a damper on creativity -- probably because the pressure puts you in an anxious and not-so-good mood.

“When you’re in a positive mood, you’re more sensitive to picking up these weakly activated, unconscious ideas and, when it’s detected, your attention can switch to it, and it can pop into the head as an insight,” Kounios explained. “If you’re in a bad mood … it just goes with what’s strongest, which is usually the most straightforward.”

Kounios isn't the first to take a look at how deadlines impact out-of-the-box thinking. Teresa Amiable, a researcher at Harvard Business School, said back in 2002 that putting too much pressure on employees on a daily basis can lead to burnout.

"Very high levels of time pressure should be avoided if you want to foster creativity on a consistent basis," she explained in a Harvard Business Week article . "However, if a time crunch is absolutely unavoidable, managers can try to preserve creativity by protecting people from fragmentation of their work and distractions; they should also give people a sense of being 'on a mission,' doing something difficult but important. I don't think, though, that most people can function effectively in that mode for long periods of time without getting burned out.”

Before you ditch your obligations in the name of creativity, it's important to note that working under a deadlines does have its advantages.

Justin Rosenstein, the designer for Facebook 's internal productivity tool, is all about committing to deadlines on projects .

"If an important task doesn't have a natural deadline, I'll tell people confidently, 'I will send you a copy by end of day Friday,'" he wrote in a blog for The Huffington Post. "Now I don't want to look ridiculous in front of my teammates, so I will naturally make damn sure it's ready for them by Friday."

We're all about productivity. Just make sure it's not getting in the way of your creativity.

H/T Science Of Us

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From our partner, huffpost shopping’s best finds, more in life.

Do deadlines destroy creativity?

• . Update: Apr 22, 2021 11:50 am

Table of Contents

Yes – Deadlines destroy creativity:

• Deadlines will  force us to focus on finishing the task at hand rather than coming up with creative ideas.
• Continuously chasing deadlines can make us emotionally exhausted . Hence there will be no motivation to be creative.
• Even if we get creative ideas, implementing them requires more time and analysis . With a short deadline, that will be difficult and hence people will go for routine and already worked out ideas.
• Everyone is different. Some people can be creative under pressure, and some people will bring innovative ideas, only if they are not under pressure. So, giving tight deadlines to those, who cannot cope up with pressure can destroy creativity .

No – Deadlines motivate us to be creative:

• If there are no deadlines, people may keep postponing the task in search of a better creative idea.
• If we get used to being creative , we will be creative even if we have deadlines. Thinking and implementing creative ideas can become a habit.
• With no deadline, we’ll have plenty of time, so we may also think about why the idea won’t work , the possibility of failure. This can indeed kill creativity.

How to be creative under pressure:

• Dividing the task into sub-tasks and keeping small deadlines will reduce the pressure and can give us peace to think about innovative ideas. If we delay the work until the last minute, we cannot think about new ideas.
• Setting some time aside  to think about creative ideas also helps.
• Eliminating distractions will give us more time to finish the task, and thereby we can use that time to try and implement new ideas.
• Mistakes do happen if we try something new. So, not being scared of failing and making mistakes can help us in being creative.
• Taking tiny breaks can reboot our brain and can help us in thinking clearly.

Conclusion:

Not everyone can manage to be creative under pressure. Tough deadlines can kill creativity. But reasonable deadlines can spur creative ideas.

References:

Creativity Under the Gun

Does a time limit make you more creative?

Deadlines Aren’t Killing Your Creativity, It’s Your Approach

Photo by Brad Neathery on Unsplash

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Priya, Oct 11, 2020 @ 7:46 am Reply

Dead lines are to be needed ..Because one can be lazy and postpone the work if there is no end date of the work submission.If the dead line is provided one can actively think about the work without deviation ..In some aspects we can think creatively in tough conditions ..

sanskriti, Oct 7, 2020 @ 3:43 pm Reply

deadline is important because in this, way we get under a lot of underpressures so our creativity gets blur and our bright future get on the darker side. so its good to take some time for showing your creative and perform well

khalequeuddin ahmed, Sep 10, 2020 @ 10:28 am Reply

Actually deadlines destroy creativity but schools must give deadlines cause not all students are sincere. So according to me proper deadlines should be given, not too long nor short. But if a student fails to submit but have a proper reason for that , teachers should give them another chance .

Tinku paul, Aug 9, 2020 @ 7:00 am Reply

According to me deadlines destroy creativity. If I get sufficient time for any work I can give my efforts and complete the work and review it so there will be no mistake but when I have deadline within specific time I have to complete the work though I give my full efforts but I have to do it hurriedly so may be sometimes ignore something and maybe make mistakes also .

khalequeuddin ahmed, Sep 10, 2020 @ 11:22 am Reply

same with me but i often manage to do my best even in less time.

Mandeep Singh, Jul 10, 2020 @ 11:36 am Reply

A shorter deadlines can destroy the creativity wheras reasonable deadline make us creative . We should divide the time into sub tasks those are more important do it first and then less important.

Vishal Anand, Jul 8, 2020 @ 7:23 am Reply

A shorter deadline destroys the creativity whereas reasonable deadlines help persons to be creative. Reasonable Deadlines helps to keep a check on quality of work with relation to time factor.

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