We were having a conversation at my college about deadlines at some training thing and someone pointed out that almost no job is like that. That movie scenario where the guy has a big presentation, but it's also his daughter's dressage recital or whatever, and if he misses the presentation he'll lose his job? That doesn't happen. In the real world, you just say "I can't do it that day, let's reschedule for next week." and that's fine. Most real world deadlines are soft.