Deadlines

There are deadlines, and there are deadlines. While I try to meet all deadlines I have agreed to, when push comes to shove, there are things that can slip and there are things that cannot.

Things that can't slip: proposal deadlines, fellowship applications, many grad school submission deadlines, recommendation letters, most conference abstracts

Things that can be turned in late (though I really try hard not to): reviews (though I try not to miss by more than a day or two so as not to put the editor/program officer in a difficult spot), invited manuscripts (they seem to build in some extra time here in my experience, but be careful!)

This is something I almost always end up discussing with students. My students seem to think all deadlines can slip, or none of them can (I guess based on their prior experiences with extensions in University?).

Methods I use to try not to slip deadlines (or panic last minute):

• Put deadlines on my calendar right away, often with a reminder a week ahead of time.
• Do reviews right away (ideally, the same week I agree to them), but this is not always possible
• When students are attempting to meet a school submission deadline, I meet with them to set up a schedule for milestones. At the end, I can return thesis chapters with 24 hour turn around time, but that means clearing a lot of other things off in preparation and not agreeing to do any other reviewing in that period.
• Abstracts for me are pretty fast--I have loads of experience with this. For my students, I have them plan to be submission ready a week before the deadline.
• Do reference letters for undergrads the day I am asked. I am very fast writing for undergrads at this point--I can do one from scratch in an hour or less, especially for students not in my group. Letters for my grad students take a lot longer, and I have to plan in the time. I do reuse existing letters as a template for undergrads--I always use "find" to make sure all pronouns are appropriate!

I have not yet found a way to not be working like a maniac until the last minute on proposals, but I have gotten better about submitting at least several hours before the deadline, rather than frantically logging in at 4pm for a 5pm deadline.