There's more to life than deadlines

There's more to life than deadlines.

My last few college assessments have gone in late. That's right. Bible College student: late. Doesn't sound right, does it? Aren't you Bible College students meant to be better than that? Aren't you meant to be motivated? But don't get carried away. It's generally only one day, or at most two, so we're talking a 7% deduction, at worst. But what do you think when I say I've handed in my last few assessments late? Slacker? Overworked? Lazy? Perfectionist? Almost all negative thoughts, I'd imagine.

On the plus side, the most redeeming feature about these late assessments has been that taking the extra day or two has on every occasion ensured at least an 11% improvement on the quality of the work. Plus, I submitted my Old Testament essay a week early and got my worst result at college thus far. But has your opinion of me changed since I've disclosed that I have been habitually late, of late?

Last week I was meeting with some friends to discuss some preliminary prospects for gospel work post-college. I casually brought up at the end of the meeting that I was going home to work on an assessment due the night before, and it was strongly insinuated by my friends that handing in college assessments late was a poor reflection on my organisational skills. Well, fair enough I suppose. That could certainly be the case. And it's worth asking the question. That perhaps if I habitually fail to meet deadlines, this could be a problem in some contexts e.g. when a sermon needs to be prepared each week you can't just take the 7% deduction in grades.

Now, I know what you're thinking. But please, forget that I just compared writing essays for assessment at Bible College to delivering sermons. Now, if you can get past that, let me explain why this symptom of late submission of essays is actually not caused by the disease of poor time management.

I chose to be late. That's right. It was a conscious decision on almost every occasion to submit my essays late.

The most recent was a church history essay. It was due 11:55pm Tuesday. I had been working on it, on and off for about three weeks prior to the due date. But the decision to submit two days late was made not at 11:54pm on the Tuesday, but two days prior, on the Sunday. After a full day at church, including four hours working on the essay in between services, I got home late Sunday night to have a quick dinner with wifey, before keeping on writing. At 11pm wifey said, "Can you please come and tuck me in for bed?" I thought for a moment. Stared at the screen. Yawned. Thought for another moment. And said, "Nah, I'm tired, I'm coming to bed too".

Blink and you may have missed it, but that my friends, was a swift left hook to the time management demons. I choose wife and 7% deduction over a sleepless night and associated grumpiness.

Sure there might still be more questions to ask in terms of how I've been using my time. But there's more to deadlines than life.*

* This reversal of my opening statement sounds profound, but if you ponder too long on it, it doesn't actually make sense.