A deadline isn’t a creativity killer. For a lot of people it’s the only thing that gets the work out the door.

Open-ended time feels generous and often produces nothing. A date forces the thousand small decisions you were postponing, and decisions are what a finished thing is made of. The pressure does not improve your taste, but it does convert intention into an actual object, which is the step most ideas never clear.

Give one unfinished project a date before Sunday and tell someone the date. Keep it close enough to be uncomfortable, maybe ten days. Then protect it the way you would protect a practice you promised to attend.