I'm currently one of those who's trying to do random illustrations and has their comic schedule somewhat suffering. But despite panicking over a late/forgotten release, I just enjoy not working on it too. It's okay to juggle a chore with something a bit more enjoyable. And these extras are a good way to practice/work on a different set of skills (textures, bgs, poses, shading, etc). I'll admit it's a bit aggravating that my comic won't look as good as my "illustrated style", but I've kinda accepted that working in two different rendering styles is a bit of skill development on its own, so I'm maintaining that goal, sorta.
I too had a deadline to release a bunch of pages within a set time limit, but after failing to keep up my schedule(for several weeks, even now), I've just decided to slow tf down and release when a page is finished, not because of a schedule. At the end of the day, the story, and viewers will still be around.
Edit: For the record, Im also a "comic all day" person with no social life and had ghosted her IG friends to focus on this time vampire XD. Might do a short hiatus after this story arc to make a friggin buffer. Keep on chugging, with breaks, that is...