ASAP -- Here's What It REALLY Means

(Updated in 2020)

What Does It Mean?

You’re working on a deadline project. One large part is due at 10 a.m.; the rest goes at 3 p.m. Your day is “Goldilocks just right.” Well, just right if no monkeys come, and no alligators raise their ugly heads.

You get a call asking a favor ASAP. When will you do it?

ASAP is always later, usually LAST.

A real-time deadline always comes first. It has a win or lose line.

ASAP has an “out” of “possible is when I have time.”

ASAP to the speaker means “As Soon As you can Push it through.”

But to the listener it means, “As Soon As the Pressure’s off.”

Unless the person asking wields great power, ASAP will always lose.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Photo by Niklas Kickl on Unsplash