When a deadline moves closer, the first job is to decide what can still be delivered responsibly.
Define the minimum useful outcome
Ask the requester which decision or customer need the work must serve. List the essential output and the parts that can wait. Confirm the deadline and time zone. Separate a hard external constraint from an internal preference; both deserve clarity, but they call for different choices.
Map the critical dependencies
Identify who supplies inputs, who reviews the result and how long the final correction takes. Put a checkpoint before the final hour so a missing approval does not become a surprise. Assign one owner to resolve blockers. Protect accuracy, safety and accessibility checks that the work actually needs.
Send a visible trade-off
Offer a smaller version on time, the full version later, or more help where feasible. State what each option omits. Update the requester when an assumption changes, not only after the deadline has passed. After delivery, review why the work became urgent and change one part of the planning process.
Try it in a real workweek
A report due Friday cannot include every interview. The team agrees to deliver the verified quantitative findings on Friday and a separately dated qualitative follow-up next week, with a review checkpoint on Thursday.
Triage is not permission to omit essential checks or quietly change the agreed scope.
Check the source and the context
For the next step, see this related field guide.