Comment by Marco Alka on "Would you write terrible, messy, unthought-through code if the deadline was at stake?"

tl;dr: NO. You will only introduce bugs. So even if you meet your deadline, no one will be happy with your solution.

What you should do is talk to your boss or project leader/master, tell them about the situation; work out a plan to make the best out of the situation.

Reduce the items on the TBD list (fewer features / improvements)
Set a later deadline
Add another programmer (this might be dangerous or will not help in some cases)
Reduce other tasks and decline meetings
Increase the hours of work you are allowed per day until the deadline. You might get payed for those hours directly or sometimes you can savethem up and take a few days off in return later on

Yes!! Communication is sometimes more important than product/code. This is the case. Communicate how tight or undoable the deadline is to your product owner/client and rework expectations and/or deadline. I think in times past I didn't do this because I had too much pride to admit I wasn't going to make the deadline. However, you really should consider what the egg on your face is going to feel like when you've lost sleep, walk into a presentation all stressed, and only to discover all the regressions you've introduced.

Thanks a lot you are really awesome but why will adding another programmer be considered dangerous?

@Covenant Because that programmer will have to understand the code base, you will need to split assignments with one more and check results with one more person. Just showing the additional programmer how to do stuff might cost you more time than they ease your pressure. Adding another developer when in a tight situation has to be given enough thought. Let me use the following quote:

One woman gets a baby in nine months, so nine women will get a baby in one month

Just adding programmers often is a management decision without considering how the work is split up, how much work it is to get a new developer up2date and how the current team works

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