[whpalmer4]

It's not just the low-level stress of having all those due dates, and the time spent putting due dates on everything. Missing due dates (because you know deep down the due dates aren't "real") dilutes the usefulness of the due date concept for the ones that do matter. Having to run down the list of overdue (or soon to be) actions and repeatedly pick out the ones that actually matter from the ones you just slapped a due date in the hopes of a bit of progress is an accident waiting to happen. I think it is better to know that if there's a due date on an action or a project, it is something that matters (or did when you assigned the due date -- perfectly reasonable to decide that the situation has changed, what was once important no longer is, and remove the due date). Remember Aesop's tale of the boy who cried "wolf!" too often?