Pressure Test : Can You Handle Intense Deadline Pressure?

People under pressure dont work better; they just work faster _{-Tom Demarco}

When I was browsing my phone for photos just earlier, I stucked at some of my pictures during the Turo-turismo Workshop in Cebu which reminded me of one of the training activities there that really caught me. It's a thing related to deadline pressure. It goes like this...

Before the speaker started his talk about pressure, like the one in the workplace especially in the tourism industry, he let us take a test which he called PRESSURE TEST.

In the activity, each of the participants was given a piece of paper where the instruction for the activity was written. It was emphasized that we had to finish what had to be done within a minute. And so...

Here's the Instruction

_{Disclaimer: I haven't remembered exactly everything that was written on that paper, but I know what it wanted to deliver, so I will just cite here few of them which can complete the thought and give justice to the purpose of the activity.}

1. Read the whole thing before doing anything.
2. Write your name in the upper right corner of your paper.
3. Write the name of the school where you're teaching at the upper left corner of your paper.
4. Encircle the instruction in number 2.
5. Box number 6.
6. Write your favorite color at the middle portion of your paper.
7. Put a check mark at the lower left corner of your paper.
8. Draw a tree house at the back page of your paper.
9. Just do instruction 1 and 2.
10. Submit your paper.

And yes, the time was up and everybody was like shouting and laughing for what was done. Imagine, most of us were thinking to do all in just a minute without paying too much attention to the first instruction. See what pressure had done to us? haha! Because of the deadline, like the given time, most were slowly getting everything done except that number one though. And yes, obviously, we failed, I failed in the test. Among the 50 participants, only 3 passed. Alarming, isn't it? Oh well!

But I believe that this didn't mean that those who failed can't handle deadline pressure. We just failed at this, and we learned.

Realization and Insight

Learn to follow instruction carefully, so you'll be in the track at all times. Just relax, don't get panic and don't let the pressure rule over you to make sure that all were STRICTLY followed and done within the given time so you'll not mess out.