The power of a deadline

#40 creative constraints, working with Penguin, and hosting a Lunch & Learn!

Hey 4,580+ friends, it’s Hannah from Quoted Visually 🤍

Keeping it real, life has felt busy. I haven't prioritised sending newsletters to you to be kind to myself, but I’m getting back into the rhythm. Let's dive in ⤵︎

☁️ Today’s thought:

“You don’t need more time, you need a deadline” - Codie Sanchez

Often we need a sense of urgency to spur ourselves into action. Without a deadline, projects can expand to fill more time, but deadlines can work for us.

In line with Parkinson's law: Work expands to fill the time available.

Creative constraints can help us produce our best work.

💡 Reflection

In January, I said yes to illustrating for a Penguin book (another one??!)🤯

It was one of those, it would be silly to say yes, but silly to say no kind of projects, because it had a 2-week deadline attached.

I thought ouch. Is that even doable? 😳

But I decided to reframe the deadline as a blessing and a challenge.

I've noticed that, under the pressure of a deadline, procrastination can become less of a trap. When forced to problem solve, solutions appear and we find a way.

It's the growing feeling that everything can be figured out.

When it comes to creative projects, we do need breathing space, and ideas do need time to incubate, but ideas are ever evolving. When given more time, we can keep ideating and iterating, indefinitely. The creative process literally never finishes.

For me, a deadline moves the question:

• From: “What is the best way to solve the problem?”

• To: “How would I solve the problem right now?”

In this way, a deadline brings us into the here and now.

As Sahil Bloom reminds us: “Later can become another word for never.”

Are you using any one-off or recurring deadlines to your advantage right now?

🗞️ Update behind the scenes

1️⃣ Now you know one of the reasons why I've been quiet. Keep your eyes peeled in early 2026. You're going to love the book 🤫

Ironically, after racing to meet the Penguin deadline, it got extended and all of a sudden the project felt open ended.

The experience has reminded me of the magic that happens in the momentum of a deadline. When we get fast feedback, we can make significant progress.

Sometimes the structure can feel like an inconvenience, but it’s often a blessing. Open-ended projects weigh on us for longer and don’t set the same expectations.

Spot Sahil Bloom, Chris Donnelly, Simon Squibb, Simon Alexander Ong, Grace Andrews, Aydan Al-Saad, Gabriel Nussbaum and many more amazing people 🤍

2️⃣ Aside from this, I've been attending as many in-person events as possible to get myself in inspiring rooms and it’s working!!

It's not rocket science, but I've learnt that the combination of putting ourselves out there in multiple places online, and then attending events, can quite literally bring opportunities to our door. Big ones 🥹

The online networking and posting becomes the pre-work.

By the time we meet future clients in person, they already know us and they've already decided that they want to work with us. Powerful!

I urge you to do the same, because the actions we take today sew the seeds for our future self a few months down the line.

3️⃣ Lastly, catch me this week out of my comfort zone LIVE on my first ever webinar with Enterprise Nation TOMORROW… it’s free:

📍 6th March
⏰ 12-12:30pm GMT

Big love,

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P.S. join the Quoted Visually course and community to learn how to make illustrations that reach millions in just a few hours here