You're not the only one, if that's any consolation. I do many connections, and I worry too when it looks tight.

E.g. next month my companion and I fly CLT-PHX-ANC. US in its infinite wisdom makes PHX connections rather short. 38 min in my case...do-able in PHX but still I worry 'cause the connecting PHX-ANC flight is the last one of the day. Like you, I have to think about going hours early and standing by for the earlier flight; what complicates things is that we're already confirmed in FC, and getting on the earlier flight standby probably means 2 coach middle seats (bearable on a short flight, but we're talkin' near-transcon here)