The Tyranny of Time

I'm getting rid of deadlines and due dates in my business for the next 100 days. This post explains why.

I was browsing yet another anti-productivity-productivity book in the bookstore the other day when a thought occurred to me:

What if I just eliminated deadlines and due dates from my business?

I stopped, frozen in the BookTok recommendations aisle in front of 3 fae romance novels, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and Tara Westover's memoir.

It felt like I was having an illegal thought.

Aren't deadlines and due dates just an essential part of functioning in modern life? Would I even be able to do that successfully? Would it help me function, or would it make things 1000x worse?

In that moment, I decided that I wanted to do an experiment with it. I wanted to see what would happen if I eliminated deadlines and due dates from my business for 100 days. That's basically from now until a week before Black Friday, so if I fail I can still salvage the best promo of the year.

But first, I had to do some research. I had to figure out what I was up against, what was possible, if anyone else had even tried this, and what I could do to make this work.

So, like any good neurodivergent with an idea that grabs ahold and won't let go, I sat down in front of Google with a large amount of caffeine, a complete disregard for my biological needs, and a note-taking app, and I got to work.

And here's what I learned.