Performing under stress

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How much do you get done when you're under pressure? Are there differences when you have to study hard and finish an assignment that you know nothing about prior to starting it and need to find out how to go about it and when you know exactly or more or less how the assignment should be put together and you are confident about the time it should take you?

To start off with myself: I can experience times in which I feel so stressed that I have to lie down for hours on end. Just the other day I was very stressed because of worrying and perhaps some other tension that I laid down on bed for seven hours. I have had this many times in the past and it was usually when I had to finish an assignment that was rather large within a short amount of time of which I wasn't sure of how to go about it.

I would love to hear your stories.

I would always write my best music when I had a live performance date coming up. It was like, I would get into this mode that did not tolerate my mind to wander. I hated the pressure but what came out was always better than when I just tinkered along at my own pace.

It depends on what it is. If it's something like math, I'll look it up online and then ask the professor to take a look at it before it's due to tell me if I'm on the right track. If it's something like a type of writing assignment that I've never done before, I'll send the professor a sample of what I have so far and ask is this what you're looking for, or should it be more like A, or B? They can answer you pretty easily if you phrase it like that, and then you shouldn't be so stressed out.

If it is something I have no idea about I will be stressed out, then stressed out, and stressed out even more. Then I tell myself "Enough sulking, let's try it", start researching and suddenly... get into a hyperfocus state lasting up to 9 hours. And once I get everything done I realize out of blue that I am so tired and hungry that I am about to collapse.

If there is something I am familiar with but I don't like doing I will procastinate till I can and then do it without much trouble near the due date. My hyperfocus may turn on or not, it vary from task to task.

If it is something I am familiar with and like I will start as soon as I have enough time to safely turn on my hyperfocus without risking distractions(since I get angry if my focus is disturbed when I do something pleasurable). And then get it done before anyone else can.

I am lucky since my hyperfocus turns on when I do something I like and I happen to like discovering new information so it also turns on when I work at an unfamiliar (and sometimes even not liked) task as long as the task allows me to discover a lot of new information.