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Just hearing the date April 15th out loud can send shivers down the spine of many a taxpayer. While the deadline to file your taxes may seem scary to some, it really isn’t much different than most other deadlines. Filing your taxes may invoke fear in addition to the actual time crunch, such as fear of audit, inability to pay, making a mistake, etc, but most of the angst comes from the fact that they must be filed by a specific time. Sure, it’s easy to file an extension, but even that must be postmarked by April 15th. This fear of a deadline begs the question of how we handle deadlines.

It seems to me that most of us end up doing tasks under pressure in one form or another. Thinking back to college I was one of the ones who would be up late a few days before some project due date pushing out some of my best work. When time is short, many of us work highly efficiently out of necessity. With more time we tend to be less productive. While I didn’t wait to the last minute like some of my classmates, I also wasn’t the one turning in the work weeks ahead of time. I don’t believe that those students had any less pressure. They would set an artificial deadline and work just as frantically trying to get their work done. Even though they had the luxury of more time if something catastrophic should happen, they seemed to be just as stressed out as their artificial deadline approached as the rest of us were as the real deadline approached. Getting done too early also gave them time to second guess their work. They would have been better served to hand in their work after it was complete, but doing so may have given the professor the impression that they had rushed to get it done early and didn’t think that it could be improved.

There is a delicate balance between getting work done early enough that you actually have less stress, but not so early that other factors (discussed above) come into play. A similar problem exists when doing your taxes. Generally speaking, if you are expecting a refund you should file as early as possible to get your money sooner and if you are expecting to owe on taxes you should file closer to the deadline to keep your money as long as possible. Looking at other deadlines, for work or school, it seems that neither as soon as possible nor as late as possible is the best time to do the work. It would seem that doing the work in time for an lax artificial deadline somewhat before the real one would afford the best combination of efficiency, safety, and lack of stress.  Finishing near the actual deadline allows the work to be submitted as soon as it’s complete.  Doing so gives a positive impression, no chance for second guessing, and the luxury of breathing easier as those around you sweat.