End-of-Day Deadlines

“Can you get the final version to us by end of day tomorrow?”

Fairly common question and, based on society’s pre-determined work hours, represents “Tomorrow at 5 p.m.”

It seems simple. You do the work and get it to the client by 5 p.m. tomorrow. But then what happens? The client is already out of the office and won’t see it until the next morning at 8 a.m. (society’s approved work-start time). That leaves your masterpiece sitting in an inbox for 15 hours.

What could you have done during that 15 hours? Most assuredly, you could’ve made it better. There’s also a chance you could’ve made it worse, but that’s unlikely. Or, you could’ve ignored it as society suggests you should, which is essentially what leaving it in an inbox does.

I find a few different ways to think of an end-of-day deadline:

1. It’s the end of the acceptable work day, and it’s a specific time, which helps when it comes to a deadline. Who cares what happens after I deliver it? I met the deadline.
2. They won’t see it until tomorrow, so why don’t I just wait and make sure I send it to them prior to 8 a.m. the next day?
3. Look at all this time I have today to work on this thing. What a great deadline.

What do all these things combine to mean? Nothing. A deadline has to exist, so who cares what it is? Get your work done, people.

My theory, based on no research, is end-of-day deadlines became necessary due to slacking idiots who took “First thing in the morning” to mean “some time before noon.” When people got frustrated waiting past their deadlines, they merely moved them up from “First thing Friday” to “Last thing Thursday.”

The best part: no matter what deadlines you’re trying to meet today, you now have to make up for the time you wasted reading this drivel.