Deadlines: Suggestion or rule?

Justin H
Jan 30, 2017
2 min read

So, this particular topic came to mind as I’m writing this blog on a Sunday night, a movie playing on the television behind me that my mother is watching, my children screaming at each other from the kitchen a few rooms over about who gets to do the dishes and my wife upstairs listening to Pavarotti of all things and relaxing in our room. You see, it’s because of the deadline I have that I’m writing this post tonight instead of hanging out with my kids, mother or wife. The requirement is three posts a week and Friday, a spreadsheet got in the way of making that requirement but I don’t want to fall short either.

We all have to take work home from time to time, especially us salaried people, as there’s just not enough hours in the work day to complete everything. Most hourly people get the luxury of leaving work at work, but even then, the rigors of a typical day can bleed over into the home as they unwind from a tough day, or maybe have to complete a project because of a looming deadline. The question is, how do you handle your deadlines, and how firm are they?

I suppose the answer to that is really a case-by-case scenario of what the deadline is for and the type of person responsible for keeping it. I’ve got two projects I have to complete tonight. The first is this post, and the second is a spreadsheet manipulation that happens to be a little too complex for most formulas to work on quickly. This post and its weekly deadline to complete it is one of those soft deadline things; if I don’t do it, the only thing I’m doing is falling short of the minimum guideline and I’d have to make it up down the road, but it doesn’t impact the business functions or stop services from being rendered overall. My second project is more mission critical because we cannot finish a pricing update without me turning the spreadsheet around and getting it uploaded.

Since one of those projects is less flexible than the other, here I am spending my Sunday night working on and completing both. Is there a deadline looming that you need to address? How are you spending your Sunday night?