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There are only two little words to remember here for dealing with the stressful, heart-thumping situations that come with Friday deadlines and manic Mondays. They are quite simply: ORGANIZE and PRIORITIZE. "Easy for you to say," I hear some people yell, but time invested upfront in applying these words to actions in your working life will SAVE your life, I promise. No more tears, no more running about like a headless chicken, just a level of control that will make work and life less stressful and possibly more fun. So how can this be done?

ORGANIZE: At the start of the working week, forget mania and pulling out your hair in clumps. Get into work in good time, sit down with a coffee, smoothie, water, whatever, and take three to five deep breaths and an hour by yourself. Look at what you have to do. This could be urgent emails, files, phone calls to make or return, meetings, visits, any number of things. So put them into categories. Some people like to do organization on their computers; me, I like a nice big folder with clean pages and my best writing. A clean page, dated with the day's date, for every 'TO DO' category, with plenty of space between each item you list. Already you are beginning to manage the workload, to take control. Whatever you do, stay positive, not matter the volume; you are going to master it, rather than be driven to dispair. And now, get some fat, felt tipped pens, RED, ORANGE and BLACK for the moment.

PRIORITIZE: Go through the categories methodically. For everything that has to be done today, place a RED tick against the item. For those issues next in importance, use an ORANGE tick, and for things that can wait till tomorrow or the day after even, use BLACK. Put everything but the RED list to the back of your mind. You are controlling the panic, in charge of the action.

Look only at these priority RED items and estimate the time your experience tells you they require - then go for it. As you accomplish each task, cross it off. You can put a line through it with whatever color lifts your spirits; I like yellow and bright pink for this one. You may now have reached the end of manic Monday, with a couple of RED items still to do. Don't panic, the others can wait. You know your job, you can handle it. Remember to take a breather now and then, chat for five minutes, eat a bagel, clear your head. The next steps are, of course, about taking the ORANGE stuff and doing exactly the same, and then finally, the BLACK.

The week is halfway (or more)

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