At work, you will face a time crunch. Whether it’s a moved up deadline or an unexpected opportunity, you will have to work fast. This can create stress and sometimes a certain amount of professional paralysis.
As someone who spent more than a decade in TV news, I’m used to daily deadlines. I’ve learned that a shift in your mindset can help boost your productivity during pressure packed performance situations.
Is this situation familiar:
You’re at home, when you realize you have a message on your phone. Someone important to you, whom you want to impress, says he or she will be visiting you, at your home, in about 20 minutes.
Normally, you’d be thrilled by the news but recently, your house cleaning has gone downhill. Your home is really messy, you’ve meant to clean for weeks, and you’re now panicking. There’s nothing you can do to stop the other person from arriving. And you don’t want to be judged for being messy.
This is a high pressure situation. You simply have to act and act fast to preserve the illusion of cleanliness.
Any dishes get thrown in the dishwasher, any papers go into a drawer, and clothes that are meant to be folded are hidden under your bed. Visible locations, like the guest bathroom, receive a quick scrub.
While your heart is racing, you get the job done and your place appears visitor worthy.
In this scenario, you’re performing under pressure with an unexpected challenge. Let’s look at the lessons we can learn from this situation and apply them to your workplace.
A Time Crunch Demands Fast Planning
This is not the time to break out a white board and brainstorm options. You have to pick a course of action and stick with it.
Remember, the more time you spend thinking about ideas, the less time you’ll have to execute them. You probably know what you need to do. Listen to that voice because this is not the time for self doubt.
Don’t Fall into the Perfection Trap
Perfection probably takes a lot more time than you have. If you’re running a report into a meeting at the last minute, is it possible that you’re making the report too complicated? Would attendees appreciate something simpler and delivered by someone who is not frazzled and out of breath?
In many cases, good or adequate work is all you need. Perfect goes in a museum. Much of your work won’t.
You’ll Learn What’s Possible
A time crunch can be a great teacher. That demand which seemed impossible or unreasonable could be achieved.
Ideally, you have the time you feel is appropriate for the task but when you don’t, you’ll have the confidence you can get the job done. Over time, you’ll develop mental muscles for deadline pressure.
You’ll Work Smarter
If you go back to our dirty home analogy, you may realize that if you can make things clean in a short, focused amount of time, then you might avoid that situation if you spend a few minutes every day, making sure your home never gets that messy.
On the job, maybe you can create a fancy report template ahead of time, so you only need to worry about populating it with data.
Also, think about whether you’re staying up to date on regular tasks, so you’ll feel less pressure when an unexpected demand arises.
