It is important to be realistic when setting and accepting deadlines. Don t agree to take on a project that requires 72 hours to complete and agree to turn it around in 24 hours. Or if you have no choice, don t kick yourself because you made a few mistakes, or the end result wasn t up to your usual standards. The publishing industry provides a perfect example. There is a reason you are more likely to find errors in a daily newspaper than in a monthly or yearly publication.
Deadlines dictate the standards.
A writer cannot be expected to write the equivalent of the great American novel when the news breaks at 2 p.m. and the article has to be on the editor's desk at 3 p.m. Nor can a copy editor be expected to find every minute mistake when he only has an hour before press time. Do the best you can do under the time constraints you have to work within, and let then it go. As long as you re not a brain surgeon or nuclear physicist, chances are everything will work out okay. Some people have even learned to thrive under the pressure of deadlines.