David Lindsay-Abaire Quotes

I love a daily deadline.

Deadlines aren't bad. They help you organize your time. They help you set priorities. They make you get going when you might not feel like it.

If there's a deadline, I work late. If not, I like to have normal hours, and get up early and work. When things are going well, I hate to quit. And then I'll work 'till exhausted.

If what needs to get done is going to get done, then I can't screw around with the luxury of writing rituals or waiting for pristine writing conditions to magically materialize.

My schedule is always tight. But I like to have the pressure of having to finish doing something; it gives me an added edge.

I would never finish a painting if I didn't have a deadline.

It's very easy to fool yourself that you're working, you know, when you're really not working very hard. I mean, I'm very lazy. So for me, I would always have an excuse, you know, to go - quit early, go to a museum, you know. So I do everything I can to make myself remember this is a job. I keep a schedule.

I'm terrible with my workout regime and following it strictly. I'm terrible with a healthy diet and following it strictly. I'm terrible on the weekends about getting up at reasonable hours and all of those things. But, when it comes to my work and the discipline it takes to get to work on time - I hate unprofessionalism.

I knew I could control one thing, and that is my time and my hours and my effort and my efficiency.

On a regular basis if you're trying to produce something, I think you should work every day and set achievable goals.

Once you get into the habit of work, you can be more productive in the things you want to do.

I'm not always as disciplined as I should be. I don't sit down and write every day, but I should.

Also, I need deadlines, just like everybody else, especially coming from magazines, newspapers, and stuff like that. I need daily or weekly deadlines to get stuff done, or I continue to do things and not go off on a year of unproductivity.

Without deadlines and restrictions I just tend to become preoccupied with other things.

I don't look at emails, Internet or newspapers before 1 P.M. I wake at 7 A.M., eat fruit, drink tea or coffee, and read what I've achieved, or not achieved, the previous day. Then I take a shower and work on my next sentence until 1 P.M. After I've done emails and so on, I write again from 3 P.M. until 8 P.M.; then I socialise.

I like to get up and get out. Otherwise you end up kicking about, and it's easy to flick the telly on; then before you know it, it is 11 A.M. and you haven't done anything.

I have certain rules that I've established for myself that took a while post-day job to figure out. Everyone says people who freelance or are writers struggle with the structure of it. I'm not allowed to check email before a certain hour. I'm not allowed to run errands during the day. I have to write a certain amount every day.

I always got my work done before playing.

Everyday, all day I have to be productive. And when I ain't productive, I get concerned.

I discovered that the best thing for me was to be very busy all the time. I can get a lot done, and I can do those tasks well.

I like to work and it kind of keeps me in line, which is very good because I need that structure.

I crave deadlines. If I don't have a deadline, I become a total slacker, which is why I always have so much on my plate.

I write fifteen hours a day, stopping at Oprah-o'clock.

I'm not a particularly disciplined person in terms of my work habits.

In college, my idea of a productive day was to start writing at 7 A.M. and not leave my chair until dinnertime.