How to Pace Yourself When You Have Multiple Deadlines Looming

 Time management is one of the most valuable skills a human being can learn. Our lives are structured so that we frequently have to face more than one deadline at once. With so many deadlines hanging out on our horizons, we frequently get stressed and feel unable to cope with the pressure. Effective time management skills, though, can help you pace yourself.

The first thing to do in order to pace yourself is to spend some time planning and organizing your schedule. While it may seem like a complete waste of time to sit around thinking about what you are going to do, it really can be time that is well spent. If you do not take this measure of time for yourself, chances are you might fail at your task. Be sure as you are planning that you do it in a way that will be effective for you. Some people like desk calendars with colors and bright pictures. Other people use the pile method. Whatever works for you, go with it.

Along with your planning, you should spend some time prioritizing. Some deadlines will obviously be closer than others. Those are probably the ones you need to focus your energy and effort on. Moreover, some deadlines are probably more important than others. You must decide, in an organized fashion, which deadlines are the most important and which are the closest in terms of time. Those are the deadlines that need to be at the forefront of your mind. Push the others aside while you meet the ones you have decided to focus on. As you are doing this, consider eliminating urgent short term tasks. These little guys can have some long term consequences, so getting them out of the way so you can focus on larger deadlines can be a real weight off of your mind. A list can come in handy in the prioritization process. You can make your list as often as you feel you need to. A daily list could be made each night before you go to bed or each morning as you wake up. It is important, though, to combine this with whatever other method of organization you have chosen. It is also essential to be flexible with your list, as a new deadline may crop up that has to fit in between your other deadlines. Flexibility is one of the keys to good time management. Getting frustrated when distractions crop up is a leading cause of stress. Stress, in turn, causes you less productivity. Using lists are great visual reminder tools, as when you have completed one of your deadlines, you can cross it off your list. That will certainly give you a bit of a boost.

When you finally get ready to start working on your deadlines, take your body into consideration. Different people work well at different times of the day. Decide when your best time of the day is and capitalize on that. If you are a morning person, get up a bit earlier, make yourself a pot of coffee, and work to your heart's content. If you work best in the late evening, turn off the news and get going. Understanding your body is one of the best ways to pace yourself. If you enjoy working late at night, do not try to force yourself to be as productive at five in the morning as you are at ten at night.

Be sure when you start to work on your deadlines that you are completing them correctly the first time. Having to constantly revise your work can be annoying and counterproductive, as it can interfere with other deadlines that have cropped up. Figure out how to meet the deadline correctly the first time, and then do it, even if it means a bit more difficult work on your part. You will be glad to have completed the work well the first time so you do not have to deal with it a second time.

Be sure that you avoid procrastination at all costs. If you simply feel overwhelmed by a task, thinking about how overwhelmed you are will not get you any closer to finishing the task. Try breaking it into bite sized pieces. Work on it for, say, fifteen minutes at a time. Before you know it, you will have completed the task.

Do not forget that task completion calls for a reward session. Offer yourself a treat when you have met your deadlines. You deserve it for all of your hard work.