Provisional Order on Deadline Adrenaline

In the version of events where the work began three weeks ago, when the task was first assigned:

The task was started with adequate time. The research phase was done without pressure. The first draft was revised over several days with the benefit of perspective. The final version was completed two days before the deadline, reviewed, and submitted. The quality was high.

This version did not occur.

This Version

Three weeks ago: the task was added to the list. The list was long. The task was not urgent. It was placed in the section for things to be done when there was time.

Two weeks ago: the task was reviewed. It was still not urgent. It was noted. It remained where it was.

Last week: the task was encountered again. The deadline was examined. It was still far enough away. It remained.

Yesterday: the deadline became real. The task moved to the top of every list. Today: the task is the only thing happening.

The Mechanism

The deadline did not change the task. The task is the same as it was three weeks ago. The deadline changed the person. The person three weeks ago was a person with adequate time. The person today is a person without adequate time, which creates a kind of focus that adequate time does not produce.

The focus is real. It is functional. The work being done today is work. It is also work that was always possible and that the availability of time specifically prevented from happening.

The Provisional Order

Until further notice: the deadline is the starting condition, not the ending condition. The deadline creates the version of you who does the work. That version is available three weeks early if the deadline is moved to now.

Moving the deadline to now requires pretending. The pretending is imperfect. The imperfect pretending is still better than waiting three weeks.

Tomorrow will happen either way. What happens today is the only variable.