While deadlines and rigorous planning are often associated with stress and anxiety, could there be another perspective to the story of the schedule? Monika Dąbrowska takes a deep dive into the culture of the deadline.
To many students who are dealing with endless deadlines, the idea of a life not limited by obligations seems like a dream. Especially now, at the end of a semester. There are many perceived advantages to a carefree reality. We become the only decisive agent in our lives, we are not bound by any commitments, we can change where we are, what we do, and how we do it every day. Still, it is not possible to be completely autonomous in a world that depends on deadlines in order to keep running. In the entirely free life, we are affected by the lack of responsibilities. A life without assignments and due dates does not automatically become an untroubled one.
Deadlines impose a rhythm on our lives that is almost addicting: Some people cannot live without them. As we check off tasks from our to-do list we get a serotonin boost as we do it. When we get an ”A” after pulling an all-nighter on an assignment we somehow feel like the effort was all worth it. Sometimes when we feel homesick and tired we can rely on academic validation to keep us from giving up. Is it healthy to base our self-worth on grades alone? Obviously not. However, positive feedback can give us the little push we desperately need to keep on going.
As Esther Greenwood, the protagonist of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963), is touring the UN building in New York City, she suddenly falls into a vision of her future as a fig tree. Each fig on the tree symbolizes a possible future for Esther. For the heroine, to choose only one fig feels like a tragic choice: ”I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest”.
Plath’s fig tree was briefly a trend on social media. People would post a photo of a fig tree and write different professions they saw themselves someday choosing on its fruits. Among the many futures envisioned by young adults on the symbolic branches of possibility, a desk job is rarely among them. Nowadays there is a pressure to object to the ”office life” and find one’s ”true destiny” somewhere else. However, is it impossible to find fulfillment in going to scheduled meetings and working with deadlines? Do you automatically lose your identity once you give up your life to a strict schedule of cut-off dates?
While it might seem restrictive, the strictly-planned lifestyle can also help foster a feeling of self-worth. This idea is explored in the movie Good Will Hunting (1997). The main character, Will, is a maths genius whose abilities are discovered when he proves an equation written on a chalkboard in a corridor at MIT where he works as a janitor. Recognizing Will’s talent, a mathematics professor offers to take Will under his wing and direct his future career.
Our responsibility is not to be perfect, but to keep going.
As unnatural as it is for Will to fit into the new reality where things are expected of him and where the value of his input is greatly appreciated, he grows to fit into it. Will realizes that the rule-free life he is used to comes with its own sacrifices. Although he has to give up the advantages of his previous life, he finds more in his new one. This new, more organised life, which seems so strange to him at first, actually offers a chance for structure and consistency in a life that previously was chaotic and unpredictable. Although the validation that Will finds in his work does not lead directly to his self-actualisation, it allows it to happen.
Nevertheless, the idea of deadlines as a self-esteem booster is neither the only perspective there is, nor the culturally predominant one. It is more common to see a fictional character seek self-fulfillment outside of their ordered life. As if planning and scheduling were a hurdle for anyone to realise their true potential.
In the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) we are presented with a utopian reality that waits for us just behind the everyday reality of lectures, deadlines and exams. The title character pretends to be sick so he can skip one day of school with his friend Cameron and his girlfriend Sloane. Ferris steals a car, impersonates a millionaire to eat at an elegant restaurant, and dances on a top of a platform in a parade in the middle of New York. While watching a basketball game, Ferris asks Cameron: ”Do you realize if we played by the rules, right now we’d be in gym?” This idyllic lifestyle of abandoning any rules, of doing what we want when we want it, strikes as too good to be true. Is ”the game” impossible to play with the rules we were given?
Ferris not so much breaks the rules, as bends them. He always manages to land on his feet, no matter the height he is jumping from. His sister Jeanie hates him for it. When asked why it bothers her so much that her brother skips school, she says: ”Why should he get to ditch when everybody else has to go?”. Still, Ferris does not quit school or run away from home. He does not burn his bridges and his one day off does not determine his whole future. The lesson from Ferris is not to abandon responsibilities but redefine them. What we can learn from him is to enjoy life with all the deadlines, obligations, and assignments it comes with. At last, Ferris says to his parents: ”Please, don’t make me stay home again. I wanna go to school”. Ultimately, it does not matter if we mess up or take a break from time to time. Our responsibility is not to be perfect, but to keep going.
Despite the constant pressure to reinvent oneself into something more than just an office worker, there is nothing wrong with wanting a desk job. There are many perks that come with working with deadlines and structure. It introduces regularity into our days, validate our work and often push us to keep striving for our goals. Like Will Hunting, we can find safety in the predictability of a strictly scheduled life.
From boosting our self-confidence to assuring security, deadlines can complement our lives. They can challenge us, teach us responsibility and, contrary to popular belief, bring in work-life balance. After all, deadlines divide our time, they don’t steal it. Even Ferris Bueller eventually comes back to his responsibilities, if only for the thrill of breaking the rules again. As long as we are able to find a silver lining in time limits and remember to live our life a little outside of them, there is no reason why we should not strive to have them and thrive within their framework.
