<i>I&#x27;m half way through my time on this task already and I haven&#x27;t even touched the unit tests.</i><p>Well, my first bit of advice would be to avoid HN&#x2F;FB&#x2F;Twitter&#x2F;etc during high pressure situations.  Forgive my misunderstanding if you didn&#x27;t mean you were literally halfway through it while posting.<p><i>That brings me to about half way through my allotted time and then I start to panic.</i><p>I recently had a candidate experience a panic attack during an interview.  I felt badly (I&#x27;ve dealt with anxiety&#x2F;panic myself) for him but there was nothing to do about it... the interview ended and of course he didn&#x27;t get an offer.  Point is: if you&#x27;re prone to panic in high pressure situations it&#x27;s nothing to be ashamed of but something you&#x27;ll have to deal with as a separate issue.<p>There are a zillion amazing strategies for managing anxiety; meditation, breathing exercises, playing music and petting cats are the ones that I prefer.