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Well it's Friday ... a day later than I wanted it to be ... but after the week we've had here I guess I'm doing OK just being at this point. At least we have a long weekend ahead of us in this part of the world and we're going to be working through it so we can catch up.

You may wonder how someone who is always so quick to suggest ways of staying focused and getting things done can be in a position where we are actually around two whole days behind where we expected to be ... and I know I should feel really embarrassed about my apparent failing but I do have a good excuse. The wheel fell off

Well all four wheels are still firmly attached to our car but figuratively speaking the wheel fell off a number of our client's websites and running around trying put those wheels back on just ate up some of our time. One client called in an absolute panic because they had just managed to delete every product in their online shop ... how they managed to do that is beyond me but they did it. That was a relatively easy fix but even easy fixes take time.

Another client called and thought they had deleted their website ... they hadn't but it took a little while to convince them that if I could see their website and they couldn't then perhaps they were having a problem with their computer.

And the week just went on like that. A training session that should have taken an hour lasted for two ... a client wandered in and sat down just to talk because he was bored ... and all I wanted to do was to get on with some work.

So I might be very gung-ho on being organised ... having lists ... setting priorities ... being focused ... but sometimes the wheel falls off for everyone else and sooner rather than later you begin to feel the effects too.

So what do you do? Do you panic? Do you yell and scream at all those around you? Do you jump up and down and bang your head on the desk or storm out of the office and slam the door behind you?

That last option has a certain dramatic flair to it but our office has a heavy sliding door and I defy anyone to actually slam it. And as for the other options ... they may seem like a good idea at the time but they're really just counter-productive and, while pain may seem like a good idea a few seconds before you inflict it on yourself, you very quickly begin to wish you hadn't banged your head on the table.

In my case I just took a deep breath, smiled sweetly at those who called in and spoke in gentle terms to those who rang. I fixed or arranged for someone else to fix some of the problems immediately and scheduled others for early next week ... and now I'm getting back into the work I should have done a couple of days ago.

While staying calm may not immediately seem like the best way to cure your frustration it really is the only way to tackle the problems that are getting in between you and a completed list of things to do today.

Sometimes when the wheel falls off you just have to deal with it and then get back to what you're doing. At other times you fix the problem and then rejig your to-do list so that you can really focus on the things that MUST be done and let other ... slightly less important ... things slide down the list.

The worst thing you can do is let the problems that might arise destroy your day but getting you into such a state that you can't actually focus on anything ... and of course that's easier said than done. It's very easy to let panic ... anger ... frustration really get a grip on you and when that happens you can end up wasting your entire day.

And that is something can happen to me too. When I feel it coming on I try to distract myself ... I make a coffee or go for a short walk outside and while I'm doing those things I'm pushing the distraction right out of my mind.

Even when I think I've got control of the situation I can slip back into that panic, anger or frustration and before I know it I'm back to the coffee/walk routine and, if you're like me, you might have to do that several times just so you can stay focused on your work.

However, the biggest thing to remember if the wheel falls off for you is that the sun will still rise tomorrow morning, the stars will still be there tonight and in a year or so you won't even remember that you got angry so don't let it destroy your day ... just put the wheel back on and move on.