Despite our careful plans, sometimes our freelance workflow gets a little out of control — projects run early or late, they turn out to be more involved or in worse shape than promised, we want to accommodate a favorite client or a new one, we need a mental or physical health day, an opportunity to travel drops into our lap, a family emergency comes up, or we simply have a moment of being human and accidentally double-book ourselves. The normal flow can turn into a deluge.

Block scheduling is a great tool for this kind of crunch, but it takes you only so far, especially when the blocks are really tight and you’re pushing yourself to get through.

Here’s how I find some extra hours in the week to get through the crunch.

1. Take everything but the nonnegotiables off the calendar.

Dentist appointment where rescheduling would mean a four-month wait? Keeping that. Lunch with my out-of-town friend I haven’t seen since Christmas? Keeping that, but I’ll ask to move it to a place closer to my home to gain back 30 minutes of work time. Yoga class it takes 20 minutes to drive to? Nah; I can roll out my mat here in my living room, run through a short series of sun salutations, and gain an hour or more in my day while still getting some movement in. Massage or pedicure? Hate to give it up, but I can reschedule for next week. Have young kids? Call on your village and repay the favor for another overwhelmed parent in the future.

2. Move to simple or ready-made meals for the duration.

Plan your meals around what you can do with little or no hands-on preparation time: sandwiches, salads, baked potatoes, prepared food from the deli… Many grocery stores these days have a good selection of grab-and-go meals and salad bars. They’re more expensive than cooking from scratch but cheaper than restaurant takeout, and they’re generally healthy (my go-to is a bunch of lettuce, a container of already chopped toppings from the salad bar, chicken breast from the deli, and a loaf of good multigrain bread). If you’re really pressed for time, get it delivered.

3. Plan for your natural rhythms.

I know that my prime concentration time for doing my most taxing work is 10–3. I save tasks that require less concentration (applying styles, formatting references, and so on) for times when my brain is less fresh. Doing the hardest work when my brain is best prepared for it helps tame the overwhlem.

4. Let it gooooooooo…

Check email less often, and triage it ruthlessly. Let the snail mail sit for a few days. Wipe the toothpaste blob out of the sink, but save the detailed bathroom counter scrub-down for after the crunch. Swipe the nonessential stuff sitting on your desktop into a box to deal with later. Let the laundry pile up. It’s OK to be a little messy and not on top of every little thing when you’re under pressure. Bonus tip: Keep a notepad at hand to jot down any rabbit-hole tasks or thoughts that come up as you’re working so you can deal with them later.

5. Take a break.

It seems counterintuitive, but it’s more important than ever to take breaks in crunch time. It helps reset your brain and renew your energy — especially if you give your eyes a break and avoid screens. Set a timer for your ideal block of work, and when it goes off, take 10 or 15 minutes to get up and do something else. Go outside and meditate in your favorite lawn chair. Walk around the block. Chop some veggies. Stretch. I find that if I give myself a 90-minute screen-free break late in the afternoon, I often get a second wind and can get another couple of hours of good work time into my day.

6. Know when to say uncle.

There’s a difference between managing a deluge and nearly drowning in it. Learn to recognize when too much is truly too much. Ask for more time if you need it. Many project managers schedule a bit of cushion time into their plans for exactly this reason.

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Once the deluge has passed, take a few minutes to reflect on how you got into that position in the first place and how well the various strategies worked for you. If the problem is constantly shifting schedules on the client’s side, how can you prepare for that in the future? If it’s a matter of too much optimism about what you can fit in on your part, how can you put limits on what you take on?

Often times, these weeks are simply perfect storms of bad timing, but if project deluge becomes the norm, something has to give. You can’t live a fulfilling life in constant workload crisis.

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