Hyperbolic Underestimation

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"Deadlines drive us to get work donea with the least amount of suffering," says John Sutter. "We underestimate how good it's going to feel to finish that project, and then we also try to delay wor cause we feel le oh, in te future won't be as painful till i get that done." If you don't like your job, embrace the deadlines because when you're doing productive work, it makes you happy.

The deadline is one of the most powerful tools we have for getting work done. So why are we all so afraid of it? After studying organizations that manipulate deadlines to their advantage, Christopher Cox (former chief editor of Harper's and executive editor of GQ) has figured out how to transform deadlines from something to be feared into a superpower to boost productivity and stimulate creativity. He’s bottled his findings in a new book called “The Deadline Effect: How to Work Like It's the Last Minute—Before the Last Minute,” and in this episode, he shares what he has learned with novelist Rivka Galchen.