Are arbitrary Deadlines helpful?

Many years ago, I came across a very simple principle. It was found in perhaps the first series of blog posts I had ever read about this whole issue of productivity. It is a principle that I now live by. I do not set arbitrary deadlines. Not ever. Many people do though and so I am writing this to provide my logic as you think through the question — are arbitrary deadlines helpful?

What is a deadline?

Very simply — this is the date by which a project or a task MUST be completed by. When I was a student, I had essays and papers to complete. Each time an assignment was set, it came with a deadline. My dissertation needed to be submitted to the office of the Economics department at my university by 16:59pm on Friday 26th March 2004. That was a deadline.

A deadline is not the same as the date on which you actually do the task. Say that your car insurance expires on December 12th. You will need to find new car insurance by that date. That is your deadline. However, you won’t want to actually do the work to find the new policy on December 12th. The same is true of the Dissertation — you wouldn’t start work on it on the day it was due.

A deadline is the absolute final moment by which something MUST be completed. Normally, there are consequences if you do not and these will vary in their severity. Miss the…