Scheduling.

There are many reasons people from my generation feel advertising is worse today than it used to be. One reason, I think, is overlooked by many.

We no longer have schedules. Or traffic people to enforce them.

But first, let me tell you a story. Some months ago a "project manager" (whatever that is) asked me how many hours I thought a particular assignment would take me. I answered honestly, though he thought I was being funny.

"It will take me ten hours if they want it good. 75 hours if they want it to suck."

In days of yore, when you got an assignment, you got a schedule of when work was due to the client. It delineated client reviews and usually gave them three rounds.

Today, clients are allowed literally dozens of rounds of revisions.

In about eight minutes I'm meant to go to a meeting to discuss why my account is (in the words of a project manager) "burning hot." Meaning why are we spending so many people-hours doing the work we're given.

To me, it seems like I am the wrong person to ask. I'm extremely diligent and extremely fast.

Ask the client.

Ask the people who think of schedules and assignments as journeys, which the destination moving ever-further away.