I've just heard: I have to make sure we hit the deadlines. There's a lot of emphasis on circulation figures this days...
I know we say "meet a deadline" when something is finished by the date it was supposed to be finished, but I haven't found "hit" meaning this in any dictionary. Would you say "hit a deadline" is a common collocation and a synonym with "meet a deadline"?
For example: Can you say If we can’t hit the deadline, they won’t give us another contract.?