Time and Pressure (Never enough of the first and always too much of the latter

Emails flood in, seeming to lap over the top of the computer screen. They push past one another in their urge to get into your in-box.

Staff have a secret CCTV camera somewhere in your office - this must be true as the phone always rings as soon as you open the door in the morning.

You need to build your own TARDIS to get your work done on time.

Your boss seems to use a sadistic "Magic 8 Ball" to decide what project to give you next.

Just a normal day at the office.

The usual reaction to this common condition of working life is to develop a coping strategy, here are some of the favourite ones I have used in the past:

Burning Martyr

Carry lots of paper into meetings.  Always make sure everyone knows how busy you are (well a problem shared is a problem that person now knows you are trying to solve, usually single-handedly) - if you carry a bleep make sure it goes off regularly in all these important meetings, so the senior managers can see how busy and indispensable you are.  Always have time to take on more work, but always, always let that person know just how much work you have on at the moment.  Hair shirt and ashes are not common garb these days, but may be worn on dress down Fridays.

The White Rabbit

Turn up to meetings late or leave them early as you have too many appointments to attend in one day.  Never walk in corridors - always jog purposefully, with regular glances at your watch.You are busy going somewhere (it really doesn't matter where, just make sure you are seen on the move).  Never stay in your office for longer than 10 minutes at a time - so that your boss can't actually ask if you met that all important, not to be missed deadline, and staff can't pass on that thorny problem everyone has been trying to avoid for the last 3 months.

The Woe Is Me or Don't Blame Me Approach

Sit there and let it all come down on top of your head.  Shrug your shoulders and exclaim "But what can I do?"  When passing on work to your staff, which includes a panic now deadline, shrug and blame "them upstairs" for not prioritising things properly for you - (it will have slipped your mind that the email arrived at your in-box 10 days previously).

The organisational approach to the problem will be to send you on a time management course, which is rather a bizarre response given that we have no way of managing time, only what we do and how we do it.

There is only one person who can stop the rush - you.

There is only one person who can prioritise what needs to be done when - you.

Say no to attending a meeting and take that time to look at how you want to work (I like the 7 habits approach and the immediacy of Getting Things Done) - see how it feels, you may want to do it again.  It is certainly easier than building your own TARDIS.