[indigoshift]

I'm in the same boat. The deadline is everything. I structure my life around my deadlines, and the closer I get to the deadline, the more everything else ends up playing second fiddle to it.

I'm an illustrator, though, not a programmer. But it's nice to be able to tell new clients that I haven't missed a deadline in 15 years. No illness or injury or real-life event can change that.

I used to feel guilty for sometimes waiting till the last minute to finish a job, until I watched a documentary about Frank Frazetta. He would get a new painting project and wait till the night before the deadline before even starting on it.

He'd stay up all night and get it done on time, then go back to what he was doing--which was usually baseball or (as he got older) golf. :)