Deadline Quote by Meghan Daum
“I don't keep a diary or a journal. Sometimes I'll send emails to friends and that's a way of recording what I was thinking at any given time. But I've never been a journal keeper. I feel like part of that is because I'm always on deadline. I've been a freelancer my entire career and, at any given time, I have several deadlines for all sorts of things whether it's some magazine piece or ad copywriting or anything. Obviously, people with deadlines keep journals all the time but, for me, the idea of doing more writing is never appealing. It's why I never blog.”
About This Quote
Source Interview: The New Yorker, "Freelancer's Routine", 2020
The author prefers email over traditional journaling due to constant deadlines and a lack of interest in extra writing tasks.
In simple terms: Emails replace a diary because of time pressure.
Key Takeaway
Use quick notes instead of formal journals.
Themes
time management
creativity
writing habits
Mood
pragmatic
reflective
Type
advice
personal narrative
When to use this quote
- project planning
- client communication
- personal reflection
- idea capture
Key Concepts
Freelance work
deadline pressure
informal documentation
Questions to Reflect On
- How could brief reflective notes improve your work?
- Can you set a minimal daily writing habit?
A Different Perspective
May miss deeper self‑analysis that longer journaling can provide.
![“I feel that I'm an essayist and that my best work gets done in that form. I wanted to do a book where the essays could exist on their own terms. A book that was neither a book of essays that were shoehorned into a memoir, nor [one where] the essays had been published elsewhere first, [because]…” quote by Meghan Daum](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/107/meghan-daum-18332_bears_i-feel-that-i-m-an-essayist-and-that-my_1054935.jpg)
