Deadline

It's hard to believe the magic of deadline.

Deadly as the name may sound, it is quite impossible to live without deadlines. To me, this is an absurd state of affairs. How could I have finished so many things like reviewing two journal manuscripts and writing reference letter for my intern before I took my week off? How could there have been so many applications just before the grant submission closes? Did I have to mention the deadline for tax return?

There is now little doubt that, in evolutionay terms, we mastered the skill of procrastination (from the Latin pro, meaning for; and cras, meaning tomorrow) first, before the natural selection of a tool that has become known as deadline.

Although discipline is a linchpin of growing, it remains for most of us to rely on the patrolling of deadline.