Have you ever come across a situation when the deadline is looming large over your head and the task is yet not ready for delivery? In such a situation, there are two kinds of approaches that different people take. One possibility is to extend the deadline to deliver the task later. Another chance is to put in all the available resources and handover whatever best is possible in the given time. In both these approaches, there are positives and negatives. In the first one, we can buy more time to deliver a kind of result we would have wanted to, or was expected from us. In the second method, we at least meet the timeline and deliver something – which might be a workable solution and if required can be improvised later.

In the time of ‘everything needed urgently’, it is really difficult to meet deadline for each and every mundane task. At this point, we have a choice – either to deliver or not. In case nothing is delivered, whole chain of action is disturbed. But delivering a workable result in time might help the next order of event to maintain the schedule. Therefore, in the tasks which are part of a whole big series of projects, it is always better to produce a good possible result in the timeline – rather than waiting to have the best outcome later. It should be remembered that good is not an enemy of the best, rather it is a step towards it. Something is always better than nothing in most of the situations.

Quality is still valued by people. There are eyes which can look at the fine details and appreciate the efforts behind it. Some projects require best of the possible outcomes which meets expected characteristics. Rushing to meet the deadline may actually jeopardise the whole intention behind that design. In case you are working on such a task, better to request for more time than pushing forward something that is average. In fact no piece of art has been created in a pre-decided block of time. Most of the brilliant authors and painters have never adhered to timeline. Many of the people who have given more significance to quality have denied to be abided by a time bound approach. How creativity can be invoked in a day job? In such projects, extending timeline, missing the deadline, and working for the best output is a better strategy.

To sum up, in some of the projects, time is of essense while in others quality is of utmost importance. If one is able to identify the nature of the task and decide what is expected within certain period, it becomes easy to deliver the final result. Maintain timeline where the outcome is time bound, but where the product in itself is the result, quality should be focused on. Difficult to give a tailor made final formula that fits all situations, but it is logical and certain that most of the events and projects could be categorised in these two types: time sensitive and quality sensitive. So, next time, when you are about to miss the deadline, see whether it is a time sensitive or a quality sensitive project and decide your approach towards outcome accordingly.