How to Stay on Top of Your Game When You’re Swamped with Deadlines, Projects, and Meetings

Even for the most organised among us, juggling multiple projects, meeting heavy deadlines, and preparing for important presentations can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re worrying about missed emails and forgotten to-dos. We’ve all been there, and while solid time management techniques are essential, there are some special tweaks that can help during those crazy-busy periods when everything needs to get done. Let’s talk about the challenges, potential pitfalls, and some practical ideas to help keep everything under control.

Challenge 1: Prioritisation Fatigue

When everything feels like a priority, it's easy to get stuck. You spend time trying to decide which task should come first, only to realise you’ve just used up precious time. This is prioritisation fatigue—the brain fog that sets in when you try to rank everything as ‘urgent.’

Solution: Pick Your Top 3. During especially busy times, start your day by picking your top three non-negotiable tasks. These are the tasks that, if you do nothing else, must absolutely get done. This doesn’t mean you ignore the rest; it just helps focus on what absolutely must be achieved. It’s a psychological trick too—by focusing on just three priorities, you make real progress, which lowers stress and gives a sense of accomplishment. Who knows, you may do them faster than you think and end up with time to spare!

Challenge 2: The Limitations of Time Blocking

Time blocking is a fantastic tool under normal circumstances, but when you’re slammed, it can feel a bit rigid. Meetings run over, last-minute changes happen, and suddenly, all those neatly planned blocks of time are in chaos.

Solution: Add Buffer Blocks and Be Realistic. Rather than scheduling back-to-back blocks, add buffer zones of 15–30 minutes between each task or meeting. This lets you catch up on anything that runs over and can double as a breather to mentally reset.

Challenge 3: The Fear of Forgetting Something

One of the biggest worries is that something important might slip through the cracks. No one wants to be in the middle of a presentation and realise they forgot a key report or missed an important email.

Solution: Create a Daily Closing Ritual. A daily ‘closing’ ritual at the end of the day can help prevent things from falling through the gaps. This doesn’t have to be complicated. Just spend ten minutes or so looking over your calendar, checking your task list, and writing down any last-minute thoughts or reminders for the next day. It’s a small habit, but it helps you feel like you have everything in order before you shut down for the night.

Challenge 4: Managing Multiple Project Deadlines

When you’re balancing several projects, each with its own set of deadlines, it’s easy to underestimate how much time each task will actually take. This can lead to a domino effect of unfinished tasks, which only adds to the stress.

Solution: Batch Similar Tasks and Work by Project Themes. If you have multiple projects on the go, try to ‘theme’ your days or blocks of time by project or task type. For example, if you have two reports and three emails to draft, tackle them in one focused session rather than jumping back and forth. Grouping similar tasks or focusing on a single project for a dedicated period helps keep your mind on track and minimises the mental switching cost.

Challenge 5: Feeling ‘Always On’

A hybrid work environment can make it tempting to just ‘quickly’ check emails after hours or jump into work mode outside your set hours. During busy periods, this often turns into an extended workday, which leads to burnout.

Solution: Set Clear Boundaries and Define End-of-Day Rituals. During busy periods, boundaries are crucial to avoid burnout. Set myself a ‘hard stop’ time every day. If you know you’ll have to work a bit later one day, make a note to finish earlier the next. Defining a clear end to your workday, whether with a closing ritual or a dedicated wind-down routine, helps prevent the feeling of being ‘always on’ and ensures that rest isn’t sacrificed.

Challenge 6: Staying Engaged in Meetings

In the middle of a packed schedule, meetings can sometimes feel like an extra hurdle rather than a productive part of the day. It’s hard to stay engaged when your mind is occupied with looming deadlines and other tasks.

Solution: Can You Avoid Them?. Unless a meeting is critical to the key projects you have on the go, can you try giving them a miss? Are you genuinely adding value, or can you ask to be kept informed of any relevant decisions or questions?

Challenge 7: Managing Physical and Digital Clutter

During hectic times, both physical and digital spaces can become chaotic. Clutter adds to stress, but it’s tough to stay on top of organising while juggling a lot.

Solution: Quick Clean-Up Habits. At the end of each week, spend 15 minutes decluttering—both your physical workspace and your digital files. This small habit keeps things manageable and helps you start the next week on a clean slate. Make sure important emails and documents are easy to locate, especially when deadlines are coming up fast.

In Summary: Balancing Tools with Flexibility

Time management techniques like time blocking and task prioritisation are definitely useful, but during very busy times, it’s all about flexibility and tweaking your approach. Don’t try to stick rigidly to a single method—what’s more important, the method or the outcome? Instead, experiment with small adjustments like buffer zones, prioritising only three key tasks, or grouping similar projects.

Being busy is a part of work, especially in a hybrid environment, but we can make it manageable with the right mindset and a few personalised strategies. Remember, the key is to be kind to yourself and focus on progress, not perfection. And if you can end each day feeling like you've tackled the important stuff, then you're already succeeding.