Working towards spring - on daffodils and quiltmaking

I have been working on the next - third - quilt in my Meditation series.  This one is on daffodils.  Spring cannot come soon enough for me.  It has been unusually cold in Atlanta this year (read spoiled southerner) and I am so tired of dark, damp outside, bone-dry indoors, muddy paw prints all over my floors and cold.

I'm very pleased with the way this quilt is coming along.  I want to enter it in a show with a due date later this month, and I'm starting to get a little concerned that I will create that last minute panicky rush for myself again.  I really want to change that.  The rush, the tension, adds  nothing positive to my life or my art.  So, as I so often do when trying to sort something out, I made a list of all the steps that still needed to be completed.  I was stunned when I got to the end of this list.  No wonder it takes me so long to make a quilt!  No wonder I am always rushed and panicked at the end.  No wonder FedEx and I are getting to be such close friends!

I decided to take the list backwards to the beginning of this piece to see if looking at the whole process will help me improve my time estimates and management.  It certainly will.  Here's the list:

Concept, research, design work in sketchbook, design work with decorated papers (photo above), color study/fabric selection and design, dyeing, transfer printing, design & cut stamp(s), surface design, fusing sheer overlays, starch & iron fabrics, cut and sort fabrics, piecing and assembly, layer and baste, quilting research & design, thread selection, stitch samples, quilting, square and trim, apply facings, block, make sleeve, photography, make label.  As I'm writing, I thought of a few more - cut slat(s), prepare storage/shipping container, complete and mail show application.  Ouch!!!

That is a lot of steps, 27 in all, but I wouldn't eliminate any.  What I am going to do with this list is create a work schedule and set some milestones, leaving myself some breathing room at the end.  And of course, change my time management and goal setting going forward.  I see this as another rung on the ladder of my work process, all of which will, I'm positive, lead to more satisfying work for me, and more control over the results.  To synthesize what I've learned about myself: hit-or-miss approach = hit-or-miss results!

I'm curious, how do you work towards deadlines?  Do you plan or fly free, or are you somewhere in the middle?  Striving for something different?