The hour draws near that you have to meet deadlines, holidays are looming, your paper has to be submitted, your presentation will be the day after tomorrow….. the pressure and the stress are building up..…before you know it you are running around like a headless chicken. Once this happens you probably will lose sight of these two facts:
– you won’t have a comprehensive overview of your acting, thinking, exploring;
– you don’t really know what you are doing, in short you have lost sight of your goal.
Possibly you will manage during such a period of stress – you will meet your deadline – however once the holidays, deadline, presentation, etc have passed, it is very likely that you won’t be able to find out what you have done exactly. Perhaps you have overlooked certain things, some holes have probably appeared in the grand scheme of things.
The solution is very simple, however not easy to apply in such a specific moment of pressure:
– Jot down what you are doing, thinking, exploring. Create a research diary, which will reveal at a later date which actions you took, so you might reflect on them in a quieter moment. Did you really do everything you needed to do? Or was a brilliant inspiration maybe cast aside because of the stress.
– Consider everything you do: why am I doing this? Why am I reading this, why am I writing this, why am I asking this? This will help you to stay focused and not to lose yourself in trivial matters that will take you off course.
Simple but definitively not easy to do!
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