The Deadline Game

Deadlines are a thing in astronomy. There is always one on the horizon. Telescope time, grants, more of those. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. 

A big part of becoming an effective professor is to deal with them. And I do not deal well with last minute frantic editing. The kind that much of academia seems to thrive on. I cannot proofread or edit effectively that way. And stress messes me up (small infections, poor sleep, mental health effects etc). 

So start on time. The favorite thing professors tell their students. And I did. I wrote a first draft of several Hubble proposals months ahead.  When I had the first idea. AND I decided against several. So start early and NOT do some. Only way to scope out a reasonable week before the deadline. Trick is often for me it’s not just time but also energy. I had a spring break and I got a bunch of stuff done in it and rested up. But it’s a fine line. And I was still pretty stressed. There are little tells (see above). 

But once again it’s done. Managed not to think how much is riding on successful proposals (me getting paid over the summer, students actually doing Stuff) and just gushed about how fun the science will be.