Application to Reclassify Meeting As Deadline
A task could have been completed Monday. It is now Thursday. The meeting is tomorrow.
I.
There is a task. There is also a meeting.
The task could have been started on Monday. It was not started on Monday. The governing rule: a task may be delayed if the delay can be renamed planning, setup, research, or reset.
On Monday it was not started because the thinking was not ready.
On Tuesday the thinking became ready. The task was not started because Wednesday felt more suitable. Wednesday has better natural momentum.
II.
Wednesday arrived. On Wednesday the morning was used for something else. The afternoon was when the task would start. The afternoon contained three things that needed addressing before the task could begin. The task did not begin.
The meeting is on Friday.
III.
The meeting has been on the calendar since Tuesday of last week, which means it has been available as a deadline since Tuesday of last week. It was not used as a deadline until Thursday.
This is because deadlines require proximity. A deadline twelve days away is not a deadline. It is a scheduled constraint. The constraint becomes a deadline when it is close enough to feel.
It feels on Thursday.
IV.
The work begins Thursday afternoon with a sense of urgency that Monday lacked entirely. The urgency is clarifying. Certain things are now clearly not necessary. Certain things are clearly necessary. The decision about which is which, which seemed to require reflection, now appears to be answerable in under ten minutes.
The meeting does not require the work to be finished. It requires the work to be presentable, which is a different and smaller thing.
V.
The work is completed to presentable by 11pm Thursday. It is sent to the relevant party at 11:04pm with a brief note about thoroughness.
The meeting goes well on Friday. The task is described as "nearly complete." This is accurate. It is also what the task was on Monday.
Eventually most of the work becomes maintaining the story that the real start is still about to happen.
Next week has a different meeting. The task list has been updated.