Deadlines

By Kat


Whether its in the workplace, school, or set by yourself for a personal goal of yours, deadlines are tedious. They hold you to a set time, and they enforce upon you a strict ruling that you ache to break. And though deadlines can be the topic of many a good rant, they are as important as they seem.
It's true that people work better under a deadline, because there is something to hold them to and it is easy to pick out the people who haven't done their job properly. And yet, as a deadline-enforcer, it is even more tedious when other people ignore your requests. One of the best qualities people can have when they want to get into other peoples' good books is to stick true to their word. So even if you are facing a deadline, hold yourself to it and talk to others about it so it isn't just you who is placing the deadline upon yourself- you will have other reminders as well! (That way, maybe some people wouldn't have to get extremely flustered when their teammates don't perform...)
Daily life is largely comprised of completing task after task. But it is often the large tasks that many people leave to last. Procrastination is an issue sweeping the nation, and deadlines are a proven solution- set yourself small deadlines in  order to combat 5am sleep-times and 6am wake-ups (I know several people of this calibre). I admit, I myself do find deadlines difficult. Perhaps I'm not as extreme as some of my compadres, but I get a fair 1am sleep-time for weeks on end during stressful times. Having been on both ends of the deadline-spectrum, it is extremely hard to be satisfied no matter which side you're on. When you've spent all night studying or finishing a project, you find yourself going to a restless sleep in which you feel as if you haven't done enough. And when you are a project manager or something of the sort, you (usually) find yourself preoccupied with chasing up loose ends, trying to fix up half-hearted efforts and trying to nudge along those who are taking just that bit too long with their portion of a project.
There's all kinds of excuses people make to avoid deadlines. For example, there's the old "my dog ate my homework" strategy, but let's be honest here, that is practically medieval in the modern world of deadline excuses. Nowadays they are somewhat true, for example in high school you can constantly and consistently encounter the homework or exam study excuse, which is basically the person saying, "Yes. Yes! Indeed I am busy with my homework and exam study. I will return home at 4:00pm precisely, then proceed to do 3 hours of aforementioned work, then I shall have dinner, then 3 more hours of aforementioned work. Never in by 6 hours of work do I ever have the time to spare 15 minutes or an hour for this project. I do apologise greatly."
Ultimately you can find all different kinds of people and their various excuses. No-one likes deadlines, but it gets frustrating for both parties.
In the end, there's only one thing to say- just get it done.