Life and Writing

Abbey Woodcock

Your Guide to Voice: Stand out from the noise in 5 steps

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Do we really need deadlines?

It is a beautiful day today in central New York.

It’s one of those days where it’s really difficult to kind of stick to the stuff that I wanted to get done.

It’s interesting because I’m helping a client build out their copywriting team and they’re having a very specific problem– their writers are not getting things done in a timely fashion.

And they were confused because they have “flexible deadlines.” As in, their copywriters are free to fit in the work on their schedule. This sounds like a dream job for a copywriter but I was reminded of this study by Dan Ariely.

Resources mentioned:

  • Business of Copy
  • Launch Management Academy

Dan Ariely is the author of Predictably Irrational. (Side note: If you do anything that requires human psychology I highly recommend “Predictably Irrational.” It’s great for copywriters or anybody that’s trying to get people to buy things.)

Ariely did a study on deadlines with three groups of students. There were three papers that had to be done for this course. In the first group, he gave deadlines for the papers that were evenly spaced out throughout the term. In the second group he had all three papers due at the end of the semester. But you could turn them in early if you wanted. And the third group got to set their own deadlines but the deadlines were final.

And so, as you can imagine, the group where everything was due at the end of the term with no other deadline did the worst, the group that set their own deadlines did better.

The interesting part is that by a huge margin, the group with the external deadlines (no input on what they were) did the best.

These were MIT students. These were smart people. And so what can we learn here?

The lesson is that we need deadlines. So if you’re someone that hires copywriters… set deadlines for the copywriters. Deadlines that are spaced throughout the project to keep everyone on track.

Any professional is going to try and meet that deadline even if there’s no real consequences.

And, if you’re a copywriter that’s not getting deadlines from your clients you need to set your own deadlines and then you need to have external accountability for those deadlines — whether it’s an accountability partner or a business partner. Self-imposed deadlines don’t work as well as external deadlines.

About Abbey

Abbey Woodcock has been a direct response copywriter since 7th grade when she wrote a 30-page sales letter asking her crush to the dance with dismal results. Since then, she's converted better... writing sales pages and emails you've probably read from some of the biggest names online. Now she helps other copywriters build and grow amazing businesses.

Comments

  1. Chuck Dolce says

    July 12, 2018 at 3:21 am

    External deadlines are *definitely* important. Loren Michaels (producer of SNL) once said (something like) “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready. It goes on because it’s 11:30pm on Saturday.” External deadlines make you get stuff done. Period…

    Reply
  2. Cynthia Saarie says

    October 16, 2018 at 11:37 pm

    Hello. We are talking about you and your business in CNY at the AWAI Bootcamp and I’m from Syracuse and the woman next to me from Rochester. Where in CNY are you?

    Reply
    • Abbey says

      October 17, 2018 at 12:53 pm

      Hi Cynthia! Thanks for connecting! I’m in Oneida, NY 🙂

      Reply

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Recent Musings

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I’ve made it one of my missions to find that next generation of superstars…and one of the copywriters I am placing a big bet on is Abbey

After working with some of the best copywriters who have ever lived throughout my career, I came to the realization that it was not a “given” that there would be a next generation of copywriters who understood direct response like their predecessors. I’ve made it one of my missions to find that next generation of… Read more “I’ve made it one of my missions to find that next generation of superstars…and one of the copywriters I am placing a big bet on is Abbey”

Brian Kurtz
Former Executive VP of Boardroom
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Huge, ‘beyond expectation’ wins for some of the most famous names in our industry

Abbey Woodcock is one of my favorite copywriters – both to work with and recommend – for 3 reasons:

  1. She has a deep understanding of direct response marketing AND how it fits into modern mediums like social and email.
  2. She has a deep understanding of human psychology and how to speak to different markets… Read more “Huge, ‘beyond expectation’ wins for some of the most famous names in our industry”
Kevin Rogers
Copy Chief
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“The systems she created to hire, train, and evaluate writers are now a daily part of operations.”

Abbey was a key member of my team during a time of explosive growth. I needed to grow my content team and leaned heavily on Abbey to conceptualize, build, implement, test and improve our backend processes. The systems she created to hire, train, and evaluate writers are now a daily part of operations. Writing great… Read more ““The systems she created to hire, train, and evaluate writers are now a daily part of operations.””

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I Will Teach You To Be Rich
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