What to do when your content plan sets itself on fire 🔥

_{Day 67/100 Holy sh!t batman, the last third?}

Hey—It's Tim.

Three Mondays ago, I sat at my desk staring at a calendar so red it looked like it had been stabbed.

• Guest posts missed deadlines.

• An interview series collapsed.

• My “rock-solid” SEO plan? Google said, "lol no."

It felt like watching a Jenga tower fall in slow motion.
And the dumbest part?
It was still all my job to fix.
No cavalry. No “sorry we messed up” emails.
Just me. The chaos. And a half-cold coffee.

So, I make another coffee and get back to work.

This wasn’t the first time either.
When you’ve been doing content strategy long enough, you realize:

“Oh. The fire is the normal. It’s not an interruption. It is the work.”

Let’s talk about how to stay calm when everything around you is trying to break your spirit (and your CTR).

Strategic Dumpster Fires: Planned Chaos Is Still Planning

Chaos isn’t an accident.
It’s a feature of the game.
And you can plan for it without losing your mind (or your cube).

Here’s how I, Tim - drummer, Rubik’s cube addict, content arsonist - keep it together when everything falls apart:

I dunno, maybe these work for you.

1. Find Your Tempo and Stay There

In my teens I played in a lot of bands.
My favourite. Metal. Always metal.
The kind where the vocalist sounds like he’s being stabbed by a demon in drop C.

At those tempos - 230bpm blast beats - you can’t afford to panic.
You miss one note?
You’re cooked. The whole band falls apart.

So you learn: panic later. Lock in now.

Same rule for content chaos:
When everything hits the fan, I don’t sprint.
I slow my breathing.
I focus on one clean hit at a time.

You can survive anything if you find your tempo-and don’t let go.

Sidenote, gimme your metal recommendations.

2. Chaos First, Solve Later

Most people have "calm" triggers.
I have a Rubik’s Cube.
I’ve been speedcubing for around 10 years. On and off.

Here’s the deal I make with myself:

• If the cube is scrambled, I'm not allowed to touch it until I've solved the real-life problem first.

• Only once the fire is handled can I solve the cube.

It's stupid.
It’s simple.
It works.

I don’t know if it’s undiagnosed ADHD or drummer brain or both -
but the second I see an unsolved cube, my brain screams "UNSOLVED! UNFINISHED! UNACCEPTABLE!"

So instead of letting that anxiety eat me, I redirect it back to the actual work.
No cube. No peace.

3. Deadlines Are Sandbags, Not Landmines

Here’s a little lie most content marketers tell themselves:

It’s not.
Deadlines are important -but they’re not ticking time bombs.

They’re sandbags:

• Useful for holding the flood back.

• Movable when they need to be.

• Only dangerous if you pretend they’re made of steel.

When your plan falls apart, don’t cry about it.
Move a few sandbags.
Patch the hole.
Keep playing.

Final thought

Every collapsed plan is a drum solo you didn’t ask for.
You can either panic and sound like a toddler falling down the stairs -
or you can lock in, find the beat, and finish the song anyway.

You don’t survive in content because you’re smarter.
You survive because you’re the one who keeps playing when the whole stage is on fire.

What’s your weird ritual for staying calm when it all falls apart?
(I’m genuinely curious. Hit reply if you have a good one.)

See you tomorrow.

✌️Tim "This Is Fine But Make It Strategic" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.

P.S. Writing this while blasting prog metal at volume levels unsafe for adults over 30.
I’m 35 in 2 weeks. Stay strategic. Stay loud.

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