Why Pressure Is My New Best Friend
January 20th, 2008If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. You can also sign up for my extremely popular FREE newsletter by clicking HERE. Thanks for visiting!
I don’t know why, but I’ve never been able to be at my most productive unless I’m under oodles of pressure. Even when at University I simply didn’t get through the volume of work needed to pass my exams unless the exam was looming large in my rear view mirror.
And it’s the same online too. If I know that I have a month to get a task done then it will take exactly a month to complete, and I seem to have a remarkable ability for making any task stretch to fit the time that I allocate to it.
Does anyone else ever experience this?
For example, I wrote Six Months of Magic this week under incredible pressure, and a tough deadline, yet I still got it done in the nick of time. I know though that if I’d have allocated two weeks to this project then I would have found a way to not get it complete until day 14.
I was the same as a teacher too, and when I think about how I work it’s almost as though I need the pressure in order to thrive.
Because of this, I’ve decided to set really tight and focussed deadlines for all my upcoming projects, as without this added pressure they do tend to drift.
Does anyone else work well under pressure, or do you get your best work done when you feel like you have plenty of time available to you? I’d love to hear you thoughts on this…
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By John Szram on Jan 20, 2008 | Reply
I definitely work best under pressure.
Without a definite timeframe I’m very apt to drift, though I am slowly getting better!
I think I need to set myself some solid deadlines for everything that I do from now on.
Going to give myself a week to get my current little report done.
John Szram
By Angela Wills on Jan 20, 2008 | Reply
It sounds like you’re describing me! I absolutely work best under pressure and it seems no matter what the situation is.
I remember back when I was doing a co-op job placement in university at a government lab and they were understaffed for the summer. It was crazy busy and they left me at a testing station by myself when really they didn’t usually leave students to work on their own.
There was so much pressure because I had to test about 600 samples a day and there were about 1,000 coming in everyday so I just had to try to make sure they didn’t get overloaded and have no room to store them. Anyway, this is getting to be a long story but the point is I think I worked the best of my whole ‘working career’ at that point and got the best referrals from my bosses and even a letter saying how great I did under the pressure.
By Mike Filsaime - Marketing Fusion Secrets on Jan 21, 2008 | Reply
As above “I need to set myself some solid deadlines”
Last time I started a project which was just a 10 page free report, I posted on my blog that I would have a “new free report in one week” and then posted the date it would be available for download, best work I have ever done has all been done in the same way.
If I don’t do that then I will find far too many other projects to start on and never finish, like right now I am meant to be designing a membership site,I came up with the idea last week,I know what I want and how I want it done but have not done anything to get it started yet as I have not set myself a deadline…Best go and do that now.
Take it easy,
By Gerri on Jan 21, 2008 | Reply
Yeah, I work best under pressure and get things done just in the nick of time. I keep on telling myself that I need to get things started a little earlier so that I am not running around at the last minute but it never happens. At work, most of my colleagues work like that as well and our manager has suggested we all go for a time managment course.
By Brendan Brewster on Jan 21, 2008 | Reply
Hi Lee, I work well with deadlines but I also like to have some projects with an open-ended timeline. I often do my best brain-storming when there is little or no pressure.
Effectively, my productivity is closely linked to my perceived need to get something done, and one of the easiest ways for me to create that need by setting a short due date.
Brendan.
By Franck Silvestre on Jan 24, 2008 | Reply
Hi Lee,
Although I know this for a long time, I am under pressure right now (while I’m writing this).
I have a project I must finish for tomorrow (video, etc…)
And I just realized how fast I am bringing this to completion.
Deadline make you faster.
Ok back on this project. I have 24 hours left.
Franck the body guard.