This past month I’ve had a lot of deadlines–some I knew about for months and a few others that popped up. I felt overwhelmed and swamped. I know that is redundant, but you get the picture–busy, busy. As I was thinking about those deadlines, I came to hate the word, deadline. It isn’t a word that allows you to think peaceful thoughts. Dead–nothing peaceful about that. I think or corpses–remember I’m a romantic suspense writer. Even line is so definite–linear, no give or take there.
So my question to you is what would be a better word for a deadline. How about Next Day Celebration? Or Goal Achieving Line–oh, wait, I’ve got that word line again. Now you see why I need your help. What’s a better term for what we refer to as the dreaded deadline? Tell you a secret. I never did like them in school either.
How about “liveline” at which point you begin to live again once the line has been crossed. I looked “deadline” up on synonym.com for fun to see what it would say and they said none could be found. WOW! That surprised me. It will be interesting to see what folks come up with.
Sherry K
love2stitch(at)hotmail(dot)com
I like the cartoon,
Happy Mother’s Day
Margaret,
What a fun exploration of a term that often strikes terror into one’s heart.
I wonder if thinking of a deadline as a target date would help? Hmm.
Liveline and target date are good alternatives. I thought of goal line. Anything but the word deadline.
Margaret
Finish line comes to mind. When you strive for a goal, as in racing, the finish line is what you cross and then blissful peace, at least for a time until the next race.
I’m not one to do things before the last minute. I seem to work better under pressure as if in a race of some sort though I don’t like how it feels to be under that pressure.