I can do discovery — why do big disputes still bury me?

You handle discovery because it has edges. Requests go out, documents come back, you check them off. A dispute has no edges. It has a hundred moving pieces, people who may act before you can respond, and an outcome you cannot force by working harder tonight. This is not a size problem. Ten small matters would not bury you, because you would do them one at a time. One large matter buries you because you try to do all of it at once, in your head, before any of it has happened. Notice what you are actually doing when you say you are buried. You are rehearsing arguments no one has made, previewing rulings no one has issued, carrying next week's tasks today. None of that is in front of you right now. Put it down.