I’m one of those people who works well under pressure. If I’ve got a huge task in front of me and a very short amount of time in which to complete it, I really shine. I’m very good at prioritizing steps, delegating work (when I can), and making decisions. I relentlessly move forward until the goal is achieved. Whether it was opening a play, closing on a shopping center purchase, or putting on a conference, if I had a strict deadline, I always met it. Always.
I’m finding that working the way I work now is in some ways harder than anything I’ve done before. I do have deadlines – for articles I’m writing, for projects I’m involved in – but it feels very different. Because my workload is lighter, I have more time to accomplish things. You’d think I’d be happy about that. What actually happens is I allow myself to get distracted and I put things off. I may have two weeks to write a promised article, but you can be sure I won’t start it until the day before it’s due. I may have a meeting scheduled in a week with a client to show him the progress I’ve made on his project, but I won’t start working on it until the last possible moment.
I’ve also found that my attention span seems to have shrunk. If I’ve got multiple projects going on (which I do most of the time), I often jump from one to the other randomly. I have a much harder time keeping focused on any one thing. Some of that is due to the distractions of working at home – the cats demanding my attention, the dishes that need to be put away, the husband who needs my help with his computer – but not all of it.
I think the challenges I have are because I don’t feel the pressure to get things done the way I used to. I experienced such clarity about my work when I was racing for a deadline. I knew what needed to be done, and by whom, and in what order. As the unexpected cropped up I would adjust course and keep moving. It was a challenge, it was exhilarating. I loved it. I miss it.
Every Day is Saturday 
Again this is something I relate to. Especially more recently.
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