“I work better under pressure” usually means “I only work under pressure.”

Pressure does not improve the work; it only removes the option of avoiding it. What gets called working well under pressure is usually working at all under pressure, and what you hand in is a first draft because there was never time for a second. The rush also hides how much better the thing could have been. You never meet the version you did not have time to make.

Start one thing three days early this week and watch what the extra time lets you do. Keep the deadline as a backstop rather than as your starting gun.