Deadline panic

[lior]

Any tips on coping with panic as deadlines loom?

They are artificial deadlines I've put in place to manage my freelance work. I'm not meeting them and they keep being pushed back to the point that it's getting worrying if I can deliver on time.

I think things will take a shorter time than they do.

And then I keep responding to extra things that people just happen to send to me, which keeps up my professional profile in general but distracts me from the main goals.

I get anxious and then more likely to get distracted. Then I panic because I'm not meeting the deadlines I set.

I think I even know how to deal with this but my wisdom seems to have vanished. I made myself relax before because I was so anxious, then I fell asleep, and now I've got even less time to get stuff done!!!

I keep breathing deeply. All that rest before, just wiped away with this anxiety now.

---------- Post added at 18:16 ---------- Previous post was at 17:39 ----------

It's ok! I've achieved the most important 5 things out of 9 :)

[Oosh]

:yesyes:

[MyNameIsTerry]

I can definately relate to this lior, I've worked in the projects for years and the more you became niche, the worse all this got.

From my own learning experience, I would suggest not to get distracted with all the emails. Have set periods to handle them and stick to them, within reason of course if something is critical, replan for that day by all means. Structure can help here but you may struggle with it if you are anxious because you can feel your mind saying "I wonder what it is, I want to see what it is" and if you look, you get pulled into the trap again. You could have several periods in your day where you work through emaiols for instance, but enjoy that your main focus has longer periods where you are not distracted. Turn things off if your job allows you to.

Go for the meditation, Mindfulness stuff as it will help with things like this because you will feel more able to leave things as opposed to jumping straight on them.

Deadlines are an issue with anxiety. You have to relearn how to cope with them, try a different strategy, etc and thats where things like relaxation techniques & meditation will help, but it all takes time.

Why not stand up, get away from the computer for 5 minutes and practice Qi Gong? It's some exercise, which Oosh will like as he's always selling the importance of exercise on the boards (quite rightly too!). Then you get some graceful movement with breathing with Mindfulness and stretching/lengthening of muscles, etc.

Be sensible with deadlines as well. This was also my downfall because I set hard deadlines, worked hard and still didn't meet them. Perhaps build some buffer zones into any deadlines so you can slip but only if the work does.