Researchers have uncovered some tricks that can help you meet deadlines by manipulating your own psychology:

Research into procrastination has noted that people have much less concern about their future selves than their present selves — and are willing to sell their future selves down the river for the sake of present ease. But when the present marches into the future, and we are confronted with the work that our past selves refused to do, we pay the price in unmet deadlines, all-nighters and general torment.

So if a few little tricks can manipulate us into thinking that time is of the essence, why not give them a try?

Essentially, we are more likely to work toward deadlines that we perceive as being in the present time period than those we perceive as being in the future — even if the amount of time we have to work on those deadlines is the same.

New York Times: If You Want to Meet That Deadline, Play a Trick on Your Mind