Most of us organize our calendars around “deadlines.” But we take for granted where this ominous-sounding term came from and why we use it so much.

During the American Civil War, the term referred to a line drawn around a prison that prisoners couldn’t cross. Then newspapers used the word to describe a guideline on printing presses, beyond which text would not print and die. And by the 1920s, “deadline” was used as a synonym for a time limit.

As an architect, my life entails a neverending series of deadlines. Missing these deadlines can have significant consequences. But I have a series of rules I use to keep my calendar…