Deadlines

We are confronted by deadlines pretty early in the life game; in fact even before we know there’s a game people are expecting us to show up on time. Usually we get a little leeway on that one, but after that mulligan, the leash gets a whole lot shorter.

Now love them or hate them a deadline is a pretty standard practice worldwide - mind you in some parts of the word deadlines aren't so much a point in time, as they are a sort of, well ... suggestion. Do a little living, working or visiting outside of North America and you'll get that ... eventually. But, in North America, a deadline, or more accurately meeting a deadline, has an almost religious connotation. If you don't believe me just miss one that has your 'leader" lose out on their bonus round and you'll get a taste of some real old time religion. For those brave souls who habitually ignore deadlines, they can expect all manner of unpleasantness, from career stutters to an express ticket to new opportunities - now that flogging has fallen out of fashion.

Of course it’s obvious that deadlines are important; isn’t it? I mean it’s pretty hard to get things accomplished without determining the when, right? There are some things in life that need to be coordinated, controlled, organized … you couldn’t build a building for example with everybody deciding independently when they were going to complete their bit. Mind you the contractor finishing our basement doesn’t seem to be suffering any cognitive dissonance as a result of his incongruent deadline setting versus deadline achieving. Since when do two or three weeks have sixty two days? But his mañana-like approach aside, deadlines are seen almost universally as an important tool in organizing human effort.

I see deadlines as the spawn of expectation and time; the former often exceeding the latter. Regardless, deadlines whether rigid or vague, punctuate much of our lives creating control where there would be chaos, motivating us, even inspiring us, sometimes threatening us, a seemingly endless source of both excitement and depression. And like clothes, deadlines set us apart from the rest of the animal world. You don't see lowland gorillas contemplating deadlines, weighing the pros and cons of further procrastination. No deadlines are pretty much a human thing ... except of course that final deadline. The one all living things are guaranteed to meet.

So fear not there is hope for even the most determined deadline anarchist to finally get one right.