For Ed Still, there is no second to waste.
At some clubs, hiring a 35-year-old with coaching potential but a limited track record would imply the need for time and patience.
Still will have a vision of what he wants his team to be and, ideally, would have months and months to implement it.
Instead, he has been identified as the man not only to improve a young group of players but to win with them right now.
The club continue to be bullish about a play-off push and Still is not shirking the challenge, claiming that catching up the three-point gap to sixth is his primary focus.
He has lots of ideas for where to take the team, but knows this is not the time to unload all of them.
"Fortunately," he says, "they're all in my head and nothing more than that."
He adds: "I've made the mistake in the past of putting a bit too much energy into tactics – when the ball's there, you need to be here, and so on.
"You can overload players and that's OK in pre-season. But we just haven't got time for that, so let's keep it simple.
"Keep doing what we've been doing in the last couple of games, which was really good with Charlie [Daniels] and Dan [Gosling]."
The club, essentially, are asking him not only to deliver on the promise they have identified in him but to do it in fast-forward.
This appointment is not a license to reshape the future of the team or the club, nor was it ever likely to be - but identifying Still as the man to come in and immediately optimise the chances of beating Preston, then Derby, then Ipswich is a bold leap.
Though he applied plenty of reasoned context to his record as a head coach, he also knows that, in simple terms, his output at K.A.S Eupen and K.V. Kortrijk looks "bloody terrible".
He won two of his 25 matches across those stints and must prove he is a win-now manager as much as a talented, thoughtful coach who can improve players and put things in place over time.
"We need to think about what we expect from Preston and go from there," Still says.
Stripping the word 'promotion' out of it entirely might make the whole thing fit more neatly, though Still and the club would likely reject the notion of not being as ambitious as possible.
Investing in talented individuals you believe will go on to operate at a higher level is a perfectly sensible strategy for a non-parachute payment Championship club. Watford have done it in the playing squad and now in the dugout.
Still has been handed a two-and-a-half-year deal – and if the Hornets committed to him and the youthful approach to squad-building across that period, developing players to sell, improving year-on-year, they would be giving themselves the best chance of benefitting from careers that are on the up.
But while the player trading element is a big one, Still is not going to get away with drifting towards the end of the season with one eye on August 2026.
Indeed, he admitted that if he lasts the length of his two-and-a-half-year contract, "I wouldn't just be buzzing, it would be 'hallelujah!' – imagine with all the turmoil and number of coaches here, and the number of clubs I've been at, if we found each other at the right time."
He knows, realistically, that this period of 15 games and delivering on a serious promotion push decides his future.
And while 15 matches to catch three points sounds a reasonable equation, they really need to start fast if they are to give themselves a chance.
Strong teams who have previously wobbled, like Southampton and Birmingham City, are getting their act together and now sit above them, while the top five – featuring Hull City and Millwall – have, for now, pulled away, leaving one spot up for grabs.
The equation will look healthier with a couple of wins, but we are no more than four or five more winless matches away from being near enough able to draw a line under the possibility.
The Hornets' next three games after Preston come in a six-day burst between February 21-27 – and if things haven't picked up by the end of that, it could be curtains.
That is why Saturday's game is such a meaningful one.
Combined with the unrest among a supporter base that won't require much encouragement to turn after another astonishing fortnight in WD18, it's all on the line.
Still's honesty and transparency regarding the context around his appointment is admirable – and he is evidently very intelligent, aware and enthusiastic.
They could be the attributes that see him unlock this squad in a manner that Paulo Pezzolano and Javi Gracia haven't been able to.
He also has a potential trump card, Edoardo Bove, to call upon moving forward, the Italian fresh off a week in which he is said to have made a big impression in training.
But these are all ifs, buts and maybes, for now.
What we know for sure is that Still and his players need to find a way of getting it done - and soon.
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