I argued recently that pressure is a good thing, and I stand by it. Deadlines concentrate the mind and force prioritisation in a way that abundant time never does. But there is a distinction buried in that argument which, if missed, turns it into bad advice: pressure on the timeline is not the same thing as haste inside the work.

The military phrase captures it well: slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. When you hurry the execution, e.g. skip the test, skim the requirement, push the change without thinking through what it touches, you do not actually save the time. You defer it, at interest. The rework arrives next week. I have watched teams under genuine deadline pressure make exactly this trade, over and over, and arrive later than they would have by working carefully. The correct response to a tight deadline is to do less, not to do the same amount sloppily.

So the two ideas sit together rather than in conflict. Let the deadline decide what you work on; do not let it decide how carefully you work. When the schedule compresses, the lever to pull is scope. What should not be cut is the care taken over whatever survives the cut, because that is where the rework lives. So, as a reflection for today: where are you going fast in a way that is actually making you slower?