> *I never did figure out how deadlines work. The failure mode goes "this thing will take two days, I'll start two days before the deadline, oops". The fix is

> *I never did figure out how deadlines work. The failure mode goes "this thing will take two days, I'll start two days before the deadline, oops". The fix is "this thing will take two days, I'll start it immediately". You can then still drop it after two days if you wish, but you have options if your estimate was poor.