We are in an age of integration and collaboration.  Dependencies are critical aspects of how work gets done.  This has always been the case but in the past we did not have enough maturity to realize the indirect impacts that occur when a project does not meet the schedule milestones. 

Work organizational structure has shifted away from functional towards Matrix and Projectized environments, where different people from different departments and companies are now key members of a team.  In the old days, the other stakeholders impacted just had to deal with it and the costs they incurred are rarely included in the project that missed the deadline.  We are slowly getting to a point where the number one priority is Time.

Remember to ask that question and document it for every project, clarify with the Sponsors and communicate to the team, what is the sequnce of priorities so if trade-offs are needed, we know which ones cannot bend, example: 1) Time, 2) Cost, 3) Scope then 4) Quality.

We have covered this before, but always good to review, below is also a quick article about this:
PM-diamond-constraint.



Now getting back to the importance of time, below is also a neat little excerpt about the importance of it.  This crosses over between work life and personal life which we all can do better at to help us manage our stresses.  You may notice that one of the lines was added by me, I am sure you will guess which one :)