Lesson #8: The power of deadlines

You may have heard of Parkinson’s Law that ‘Work expands to fit into the time available for it’s completion’. Deadlines are an endpoint, a time limit, and for me they are essential to getting things done. Right now, with these daily lessons, the end of the day is my deadline, and it is very effective in my actually coming up with, and then writing out a lesson.

As a deadline approaches, the pressure rises which can force a kind of focused action and makes things happen faster. I have been guilty of using the final minutes before I have to leave the house to go somewhere to get a lot done that I wouldn’t otherwise get done — though this can also sometimes make me late for things.

Anyway .. I’m ready to sleep so this lesson can stay short. I might just add that I feel like since hitting age 50, I’m feeling the pressure to make the impact/contribution with my life that I’m here to make. The way time can expand and contract is fascinating to me, and I suppose using a marker like a deadline allows us to put a lasso around this intangible concept .. ah .. now I’m getting myself confused. Time for sleep :)