Deadlines can also have a negative impact on creativity. Creativity is usually treated as if it were something separate from normal work rather than something that emerges out of work. A looming deadline can easily cause one to grasp hold of the first workable solution to a problem even if the problem promises more powerful solutions with further work. One tip given by creativity consultants is Don t settle for the first right answer. Work a bit further to the point that you have more than one right answer to choose from and you ll invariably have a better solution, they argue.
Aggressive deadlines can preclude such an effort.
If deadlines are continuous and challenging almost a requirement in some organizations personal life suffers. There may be managers who think that regularly working people so many hours that they are either less likely to get married or more likely to get divorced is a fine way to turn a profit. I m glad to say that I haven t met them. And yet the deadline-driven behavior in most organizations certainly suggests that such a tradeoff is expected. Task deadlines can also lead to sub optimization.