Podcast Episode 124 — How to Overcome Deadline Stress
Use these 7 tips to help.
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Today I want to talk about deadline stress.
Deadline stress is the stress you feel when you have an impending deadline. Deadlines are meant to help keep you on track to finish a project or task, but they shouldn’t be stressing you out. If they are, use these tips to help you overcome or avoid deadline stress:
Ask yourself if your deadlines are realistic.
Perhaps the reason you’re experiencing deadline stress is that your deadlines are unrealistic. In general, people tend to be overly optimistic when they set deadlines. Even if you believe your deadline is realistic, add in a little time for unforeseen issues such as illness or the inability to get the tools or information you need to finish your project. In other words, make sure your deadline is realistic.
Create an action plan.
Do you have exact steps to follow to meet your deadline? Taking the time to create a plan can help with deadline stress because you know exactly what you need to do and when you need to do it.
Organize your workspace.
Believe it or not, a cluttered workspace can lead to a cluttered mind. Taking the time to clean up and organize your workspace will allow you to have fewer distractions and make it easier to focus on your deadlines.
Keep your focus on things you can control.
As much as we’d like to, we can’t control everything in our lives or at work. Don’t focus on how your boss set an unrealistic deadline for you. That’s wasting brain power and energy. Instead, focus on how to utilize the time you have to meet the deadline. In other words, you can’t control your boss, but you can control yourself. Figure out a way to make it work.
Break it down.
Instead of focusing on the huge end result that you need to produce in 20 days, figure out every step you need to take to get to that end result. Then, figure out what to do each day to keep on track. By doing the smaller steps, you will feel accomplished while at the same time getting yourself closer to the goal.
