I got to the gate just as they closed the door and the plane began to back away. It was thirty years ago, but I still remember how it felt. I think we’re hard-wired to fear these painful moments of missing out. Deadlines don’t cause death if missed, but sometimes we persuade ourselves that it’s almost as bad. As a result, marketers and others that want us to take action invent cliffs, slamming doors and loud buzzers.
We put a rope at door, a timer on the clock and focus on scarcity and the fear of missing out. And as a result, consumers and students and co-workers wait for the signals, prioritizing their lives around the next urgency. When everything is focused on the deadline, there’s little time to work on the things that are actually important. When we build our lives around ‘what’s due’ we sacrifice our agency to the priorities and urgencies of everyone else.
