The Value of Deadlines in an Uncertain World

Deadlines are valuable.

Last week, I went to a tennis lesson. In the hour before arriving at the court, my anxiety peaked. An unfamiliar environment, an unfamiliar sport, unfamiliar people—all of it combined to create a strong sense of unease.

I recorded my raw emotions at the time:

I'm worried about interacting with strangers. Having a familiar companion would help—maybe it's the fear of being left out. As a kid, I always worried about not having friends, or my close friends playing with someone else while I had nowhere to go. The free activity time during PE class was the worst—I was afraid of being alone, with nowhere to be, and no one by my side.

But this fear didn't last beyond the lesson itself. Once I experienced it, once I practiced, all that uncertainty simply dissolved.

The fear had been rooted in uncertainty all along.

Tennis lessons have one distinct characteristic: the feedback point is clear. Before the class, there's a lot of uncertainty. But once the class ends, those negative emotions vanish.

However, many things in life don't come to us passively—especially decisions that are about ourselves.

Take "Should I change jobs?" for example. No one forces you to do it; you have to take the initiative. And that brings a cascade of questions: When should I switch? Will the new environment be better? This uncertainty breeds fear, which leads to hesitation, and then endless procrastination.

Because for decisions like these, there's no clear deadline telling you when you must decide.

I've thought about setting my own deadlines. But self-imposed deadlines don't feel as binding as those set by others—they seem to carry an inherent "breakability" that makes them easy to ignore.

For matters that require me to proactively set my own boundaries, I still haven't found a good way to cope.