Mark Twain once said, "Never put off till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well." But let’s face it, sometimes putting things off leads to scrambling to finish a project at the last minute, fueled by caffeine at 2 a.m.

If you’ve found yourself in that situation or maybe you’re in it right now, this article is for you. No need for a lecture about planning ahead, we’ve got that covered elsewhere. Let’s focus on what you can do when you’re in a time crunch and need to get things done fast.

The first thing to think about is where you’re working. Your location plays a big role in staying productive under pressure. Personally, I prefer places like coffee shops or libraries because I feel more focused when I’m around others who are also working. Plus, caffeine is within reach. But the key part of location selection is avoiding your bed. When you’re up late, it’s easy to get tempted by the comfort of your bed, so choose a spot that makes it harder to give in to that urge.

Now that you’ve got a good location, it’s time to break down your workload. Divide your tasks into smaller chunks and prioritize them. Focus on the most important parts of the project first, so you can make real progress quickly.

Dwight Eisenhower once said, "What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important."

In a time crunch, everything may feel urgent. However, what really matters is figuring out what’s important. A useful way to do this is by using the Impact/Effort matrix.

The Impact/Effort matrix helps you prioritize tasks based on their impact on your project and the effort required to complete them. Let me share a personal example to explain how it works.

Back when I was a senior in college, one of my final projects was to create a web app. The idea was called AMPanic, an app that would make sure you were awake by a certain time or send an embarrassing email to someone if you weren’t.

I found myself in a time crunch trying to finish the project, so I broke it down into different parts and used the Impact/Effort matrix to prioritize. The core features, like coding the alarm, email message, scheduling and sending the email, and the function to cancel it if you checked in on time, took a lot of effort but were the most important parts for the success of the app.

Some parts of my web app project, like the About, FAQ, and Contact pages, didn’t have as much impact but were easy to complete. These low-effort tasks still helped make the app look more polished, so I made sure to include them.

However, I decided not to spend time on the user registration and login system. While it’s important for many apps, the core feature of my project was the alarm system. A full registration system would require password reset functions, which I didn’t have time for. Instead, I reused a login system from an old project, skipping the password reset feature.

In the end, focusing on the alarm system paid off. It was the most advanced feature in the class, and it helped me earn an A. Prioritizing high-impact tasks made all the difference in meeting my project’s goals.

To effectively use the Impact/Effort matrix for your projects or assignments, take the following factors into account:

• What the main deliverables are

• The grading criteria, focusing on which parts contribute the most points

• How much weight each assignment carries toward your final grade

• How much each part helps you prepare for upcoming exams, which often have the biggest impact on your overall grade

Once you've assigned Impact/Effort scores to each task, focus on the most important and challenging ones first. This approach ties into the concept of Ego Depletion, as explained by Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow. According to research by psychologist Roy Baumeister:

"An effort of will or self-control is tiring; if you have had to force yourself to do something, you are less willing or less able to exert self-control when the next challenge comes around."

Start with the hardest tasks when your willpower is fresh, and save the easier, high-impact tasks for later when you're feeling drained. This way, you'll use your energy wisely and make the most of your time when working under pressure.

By selecting the right location, planning based on Impact and Effort, and tackling tasks in the best order, you'll handle your time crunch effectively and get through it without burning out