When deadlines change from three weeks into one
Priorities must then be rearranged:
Allot the maximum that can be done
And hope that no one task will be shortchanged;

For when there are three tasks, and two of them
Involve a partner, you’ll be glad you worked
The solo parts: strategically condemn
The groups and hope the partner hasn’t shirked.

But destiny ignores all strategy,
No matter how meticulously planned
And so whatever outcomes you foresee,
Prepare for their dismissal out of hand.

Through work and luck, at best you may have pieced
A stratagem by which you lose the least.