353.366 - 2016 project and deadlines

every day in 2016, write a sentence or a paragraph or a poem that appreciates

deadlines

oh my yes!  deadlines!  what would we do without deadlines!  we have to clean house before Mother arrives!  this term paper is due tomorrow and I need to do seventy hours of research for it, hm.  uh-oh!  I meant to let the steak thaw all day, good thing I have a microwave!  deadlines.  the rent is due on the first.  our taxes are due 15 April.  (we have to make up for the taxes wealthy people don't pay.)  we have to leave at seven-thirty to be sure we'll be there by eight-thirty.  I suppose there's some way to live without deadlines.  there may even be people who live without them.  the earth, as far as I know, never has to plan for its next perihelion, it just keeps traveling its orbit.  I can imagine that Buddha - insofar as I can imagine Buddha at all - simply traveled to Maharang and arrived there before the solar eclipse.  I can imagine that Lao Tsu - insofar as I can imagine Lao Tsu at all - simply had his taxes ready by March 1.  but me, I have to remind myself that I need to send my poems to Don Kingfisher Campbell by 1 January to have any chance that they'll reach him by 8 January.  (which brings me to a device some of us use to get an extended project done, called "creating a false sense of urgency".  suppose you need to build a Skyscraper by the end of next year.  first you tell yourself that you need to finish it by 15 December, because nobody really works the last two weeks of the year anyway.  then you tell yourself that you must check that you have all permits and permissions in hand on the 2nd of January.  then you decide excavation must start by 15 January.  You're picking these dates not by any planning, not by any worst-case scenario, you're just giving yourself a sense of urgency that you wouldn't feel if you told yourself that that one permit about water mains doesn't really need to be in hand until 14 January.  it's a useful tool even if it is a little crazy-making.  but back to deadlines.)  most of us procrastinate, we do.  we know we have to start X by 1 May to get it done on time, and somehow it's 1 June and we're about to start right after we watch the 2012 Olympics.  really!  if we didn't have deadlines, we wouldn't get anything done - I mean humans wouldn't.  If someone hadn't had a deadline, we'd still be waiting for Cro-Magnon man.  now if I could only learn to schedule a bit more sanely!