“Deadlines wake up your brain.
Without them, your work will stretch forever.”
— Yuna Choi, Author of Mileage Hour
What if you stopped giving yourself more time, and started giving yourself a deadline?
In her book Mileage Hour, lawyer and screenwriter Yuna Choi shares how she balanced a demanding legal career, motherhood, and multiple creative passions — not by working more, but by managing her time differently.
She didn’t have 10 extra hours a day.
She had just 1 or 2 hours every night, and she made them count.
Her secret?
She always had a deadline.
“Work expands to fill the time you give it”
We’ve all been there.
You have a task that could be done in an hour, but somehow, it takes all day.
Or worse, you have no clear deadline, so the task drags on for weeks.
Choi writes:
“If I say I need to finish something before 8 PM because I have to go home to my kids, I finish it.
But if I have until midnight, the same task takes until midnight.”
This is not laziness. It’s human nature.
She quotes a principle that hit me hard:
“Work expands to the time allotted.”
Also known as Parkinson’s Law.
So how do we fix that?
We limit the time. We set artificial deadlines.
The 40-Minute Trick That Helped Her Focus
One of the most memorable examples in the book is this:
“When I felt I was procrastinating too much, I would order delivery food and challenge myself to finish a task before the food arrived — usually about 40 minutes.
And it worked. I was more focused and productive than when I had hours to spare.”
This small challenge trained her brain to enter flow more easily.
You don’t need a fancy productivity system.
Sometimes, all it takes is urgency.
Why Deadlines Work
- They eliminate “maybe later” thinking
- They trigger focused attention
- They force you to prioritize what matters most
- They give you permission to stop when time is up (goodbye, perfectionism)
A Shift in Thinking
Choi explains that, as adults, most of us no longer have someone telling us what’s due and when.
So we need to create our own structure.
“The older we get, the fewer deadlines we receive from others.
We must learn to set them for ourselves.”
Whether it’s writing, studying, creating, or planning a future career shift — without deadlines, these dreams get endlessly delayed.
You Don’t Need More Time. You Need a Timer.
The brilliance of Mileage Hour is that it’s not about adding hours to your day.
It’s about protecting the small windows of time you already have.
Even just 1 focused hour can be worth more than 4 scattered ones — if you set a finish line.
That’s how Yuna Choi became a screenwriter while raising two kids and working full-time as a lawyer.
She didn’t wait for the perfect time.
She used the imperfect time, and gave it a deadline.
Try This Today
- Pick one thing you’ve been putting off
- Set a clear deadline (today, not “someday”)
- Time-box it. Even 30–60 minutes is enough
- Treat the deadline as non-negotiable — like a meeting
Then repeat. Your brain will adapt faster than you think.
Final Thoughts
Mileage Hour is a book filled with practical wisdom.
But if I had to take away just one lesson, it’s this:
Don’t wait for more time.
Create urgency with less.
Let your dreams have deadlines.“If you give your dream a deadline, it finally starts to become real.”
— Yuna Choi
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