Up the Creek: Extreme Editing Solutions

Sometimes, we are editing “up the creek”: we have taken on too much work, neglected a deadline or otherwise wound up under pressure to produce a large amount of work in a very short time. When you’re way up that creek and your paddle is far behind you, you may have to forge a new path. 

I have ADHD, so (1) I have been in this situation more times than is healthy and (2) the strategies I outline below are written with neurodivergence in mind, both literally and figuratively. However, I think most people find themselves up the creek occasionally, and these strategies can work for anyone. 

An important caveat: working this way is not sustainable in the long term. If you find yourself frequently up the creek, it’s time to reevaluate your business plan, consider new time management options or (advice that has served me well) raise your rates so you can do less work for the same pay. Working in a constant state of survival mode is deleterious for anyone and will also lower the quality of your work.

Check the deadline

Confirm the deadline with the managing editor or your client. You may be surprised to find out that the deadline is more flexible than you think.

Don’t lie

It can be extremely tempting to represent yourself as being farther ahead on a project than you are. 

Don’t do it. 

Of course honesty is the best policy generally, but you also don’t want to find yourself having claimed you’ve already edited the acknowledgements only to find out the acknowledgements were actually missing from the file (I, of course, have never been in this situation).

Cut the non-essential

This may sound obvious, but if you are pulling out all the stops to finish something, don’t do anything you don’t need to. This is not the time for perfectionism. By no means am I suggesting you do a bad job; I’m recommending that you review the job description and be sure you are doing exactly what you’ve been asked to do and no more. 

When I’m doing a substantive edit, I will often tidy things up in the manuscript as I go, but when Freddie Mercury and David Bowie are singing “Under Pressure” in the background, I do only what I’m being paid for.

Divide the task and use a visual

Undefined tasks can seem insurmountable. If you’re trying to tackle a large job in a short time, it helps to have a visual representation of your progress. 

Divide the task into manageable chunks — whatever feels right to you — with clear steps, and use Post-it Notes or Google “printable progress tracker” to track your progress. Seeing how far you’ve come can get you through the crunch-time mid-project agony, and brain resistance is easier to overcome if your task has a clear beginning, middle and end.

Get some accountability

Text a friend with your plan: “I’m going to read the next four chapters of this book, and I’m turning off my phone until I’ve done so.” Even better if you have a buddy who will ask you if you’ve done it and cheer your progress.

Combine time chunking with body doubling

The website Focusmate.com is an example of combining time chunking (dividing your time into focused, uninterrupted blocks) with body doubling (working with someone else to stay productive). You pick a time chunk (25, 50 or 75 minutes long) and are assigned a random person somewhere in the world who wants to work for the same time block. You introduce yourself and let them know what you’re working on, they do the same and then you work together until the session’s end, when you check in about how it went. 

If this sounds intimidating, I encourage you to try it anyway; it has been a productivity game changer for me, even when I’m not up the creek. 

Combine Pomodoros with body breaks

The Pomodoro technique combines focused time chunks, usually 25 minutes, with short breaks. I like to use the short breaks to move, ideally outside; I’ll speed-walk around the block or do balanced squats on the Bosu ball in my office. Going outside and moving your body can be like resetting a sluggish computer. Even looking out the window can give your brain a refreshing break from its task, and you will likely come back to work with more focus.

Use sugar and caffeine

Look, I said this wasn’t a sustainable way to work. But if fuelling yourself with coffee and periodic sugar rewards gets the job done in the short term, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I have been known to put peanut butter cups next to my visual tracker as motivation. Just make sure you stay hydrated.

Learn from it

Once you’re back to a normal pace of work, take some time to reflect on how you got so far up the creek and what you can do to prevent it in the future. Work crunches are inevitable but, fifteen years into freelancing, I no longer take on any work that will result in an all-nighter or necessitate hourly peanut butter cup rewards to get through. 

Your well-being is more important than anything else; take care of it so you can hold on to that paddle in the long term.

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Previous post from Cat London: Talking Sh!t: Editing Swear Words

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