Project Junction

I’ve been buried by a blizzard of emails from a manager who always requests that the task/deliverable be completed “Today.” The “today” prompt shows up in variety of amusing ways. The funniest variant was the note written at 10:00 pm requesting that a trivial assignment be completed “tomorrow.” Of course, when I opened the note over coffee … it was due today!

I am wondering if some brilliant consultant once recommended that high performance managers include a clear deadline for any request (which is a good practice), but then took the logic over the edge by further suggesting that you add the target date “today.”  Is there any valid management theory behind it? It reminds me of the late night infomercials that scream at you to “act now!”