Oh!!! That 23:59:59 hrs deadline…

This was one article I wrote a few days back as a part of a committee task in the new institute I am in,One of those Well Known Institutes of Management in India(this one is in the southern parts).so here goes..

Oh!!! That 23:59:59 hrs deadline…

1. Rate the urgency, importance and complexity on a scale of one to nine and add the three figures together

2. Rate from one to nine how skilled you are at the task, then subtract this from 10

3. Multiply answers to 1 and 2 and divide by 20

4. Rate from one to nine how frequently you perform the task and divide this by 10

5. Rate the sine (or sin) of your answer to step 4 and subtract this from 1

6. Divide 1 by your answer to step 5

7. Multiply your answer to step 3 by 0.7 and multiply this by your answer to step 6, and that's your:

SOD’S LAW RATING also popularly known as Murphy’s law. To state simply

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”.

This is precisely how one feels every time one sees those famous, fabled numbers. 23:59:59. It seems like a counterculture (read GEEK) alternative for the “F” word. I want to use “F” but cannot and hence I use the 23:59:59 deadline and the effect is, if not more, definitely not less devastating.

Which is exactly the way this author is feeling right now. Or to put it in the new lingo, “I have been royally 23:59:59 ed” . This article has a 23:59:59 deadline. So does my task for another committee and so does my CV submission and hold your breath, so do two assignments from two subjects which I have absolutely no clue about. It’s like asking Ajit Agarkar to bat on a Perth pitch without any helmets. I am clueless.

It has become a routine to check the mail right after waking up with the search filter activated with 23:59:59. And then groan, shout, cry and then realise a vital few minutes out of those available is already lost. Then, you start running.

Lazy individual that I am, I dream at times that there would be a mail someday from somewhere stating “Deadlines are very sacrosanct. You need to make sure you go to sleep by 23:59:59.” And then I wake up. And lo! I have missed a 23:59:59 deadline. Not only is sleep lost due to the deadline but even more is lost pondering over what if the deadline is missed.

The saga continues and comes up with new ways and means to frighten you just when you thought you had it all figured out.

By the way, Did I tell u that I have a 06:59:59 deadline for a WAC?