Compress the following sentence into a shorter sentence without altering the meaning significantly.
We were obligated to finish the project before the end of the week as our boss had given us this directive.
Our boss ordered us to finish the project by the end of the week.
Below is an instruction that describes a task. Write a response that appropriately completes the request.

### Instruction:
Compress the following sentence into a shorter sentence without altering the meaning significantly.

### Response:
Our boss ordered us to finish the project by the end of the week.