Deadlines are powerful forces in our work, signaling what’s most important, forcing focus, and driving tasks to completion. That’s why projects that don’t have a deadline can languish on your task list for weeks, months, or even years.
Sometimes this happens because a project is ambiguous, boring, or messy. You naturally deprioritize it whenever possible, because working on it feels uncomfortable. But other times you don’t mean to avoid the project. You just never get to it, because items with clear deadlines feel more pressing.
