Don't say ASAP when you really mean DEADIN
TweetTue, May 10, 2016 04:58 PM
The Problem with ASAP
What ‘ASAP’ Really Means
ASAP is toxic, avoid it As Soon As Possible
ASAP
It's not the fault of those writers. The world in general seems to be confused on this. Not everyone is confused though. I found ASAP — What It REALLY Means which does seem to get the real meaning.
At DealNews, we struggled with the ambiguity surrounding this acronym. To resolve this, we coined our own own phrase and acronym to represent what some people seem to think ASAP means.
DEADIN:
Drop
Everything
And
Do
It
Now
We use this when something needs to be done right now. It can't wait. The person being asked to DEADIN a task needs to literally drop what they are doing and do this instead. This is a much clearer term than ASAP.
With this new acronym in your quiver, you can better determine the importance of a task. Now, when someone asks you to do something ASAP, you can ask "Is next Tuesday OK?" Or you can tell them it will take 10 hours to do it right. If they are okay with those answers, they really did mean ASAP. If they are not, you can ask them if you should "Drop Everything And Do It Now". (Pro tip: It still make 10 hours to to right. Don't compromise the quality of your work.)