Have you ever had a deadline coincide with an emotional crisis? We all have, and it is no picnic. Whether it is final exams week for school or a big work project with a deadline that cannot be pushed back, an emotional crisis can derail you and make it nearly impossible to finish.
I often blame my failed marriage on the last year I was teaching elementary school while finishing up a Masters degree in Library Science. The perfect storm of complaining parents, discipline problems in the classroom, a spouse who was trying to break it off and two big graduate school projects were all intersecting at the same time. Now, I don’t mean it all happened in one day, but the roller coaster of all of these challenges were occurring over the course of a few months.
I wasn’t sleeping, eating badly, self medicating with alcohol and waking up every day was a challenge. I really just wanted to stay in bed and avoid everything. Some days I did just that, but even if I called in sick to work, my desire to work on my projects was gone. It had taken me four years to get my Masters degree and I was in the final stretch, but could I pull it off?
When I look back at that time, I know that then, it seemed like I wouldn’t make it. I would either quit my job, leave my degree unfinished or run away forever (the later being my favorite option, but really, I was way to responsible to do something like that.)
So…I bucked up…prioritized and did what I could do. Finished…the…damned…project. It was the only thing I had control over. I had to use some very specific strategies to help me through this time. I learned that walking after work was key. Getting up in the morning one hour before I started my day gave me time to work on a fresh brain. I would block out whatever happened the day before so I could focus on the work before I entered into any other dilemmas for the day. This is the only way I could get my brain to work on it. I had nothing left at the end of the day, and waking up early to work on my long term goal of being a librarian empowered me! It was so dark when I got up, but it felt good to be doing something for myself before going out in the world and doing everything for everyone else.
Did I mention that it ALWAYS helps me to change my space/environment. I worked on organizing, cleaning up and decorating my office before making it my 5:00 AM workspace. That was a big help. You can try this too…you don’t need to spend money. Clean up the area. Move a few things around. Hang an inspirational quote or two. You’ve got this!