Arbitrary deadlines are, in my opinion, the things that kill most of us. An arbitrary deadline is a date that you circled on the calendar because you wanted to launch something at that time. For no real reason. You are launching a product that will help people wash laundry better than before, you chose June 16th because that is your mother's birthday and that woman could wash socks like nobody's business. Working backwards from that date, you decided that staff had to be hired by February 2. It's Jan 15 and you still haven't found the right people, you're totally stressed, turning into an asshole and it's getting ugly. (And everyone in your house has Swine Flu and you really don't think you have time to care for them right now.)
--Alyssa Royse via seattle20.com