How to Cope with Urgency Culture at Work
How to deal with the demands of urgency culture
It may feel like every email, notification and task needs your immediate attention. But urgency culture can lead to overwhelm, stress, anxiety, depression and burnout. It can help to take a step back, prioritize your tasks and set boundaries. Here’s how to ensure you don’t unwittingly create false urgency on your team and avoid its damaging downstream impacts.
1. Recognise the Signs
At work, are you and your team in a chronic state of overwhelm and reactivity? Do you and your team only have time to do “real work” in the evenings or on weekends? Have you received feedback that you need to prioritize more?
If any of these indicators are present, you may unintentionally create false urgency. Start by clearly defining and communicating priorities so your team knows what’s truly urgent. Be mindful of spontaneous requests that might seem urgent and encourage thoughtful decisionmaking.
Regularly assess workloads to identify signs of overwhelm and empower your team to set boundaries and say no to non-essential tasks.
2. Pinpoint the Source of Urgency
Ask yourself, “What is the primary source of my urgency?” If it is rooted in anxiety, you may have limiting beliefs that keep you stuck in unproductive behaviors. When you pinpoint the source of false urgency, whether it's personal anxiety or organisational pressure, the key is to challenge and reframe limiting beliefs.
For instance, shift from fearing disappointment or appearing uncommitted to recognising that quality work and respectful feedback foster stronger relationships and better outcomes.
Cultivate a healthy work culture by modeling constructive feedback, setting realistic timelines, and ensuring open communication and support.
3. Prioritise Ruthlessly
Difficulty prioritising the important over the urgent is a universal struggle and a key culprit in creating false urgency. Research shows that we prioritize tasks with the shortest deadlines, even if those aren’t the most important. Focus on the 20% of tasks that yield 80% of the results, and practice saying no to tasks that don’t align with your goals.
Regularly review and adjust your priorities, and always address the most impactful activities. Implement time blocks for focused work, delegate where possible, and use productivity tools to stay organized.
Managing stress and setting clear boundaries will further help in maintaining focus on what truly matters.
4. Use tools like project management software, calendar apps and task managers to keep track of your responsibilities and deadlines.
Choose Tools: Use project management software (e.g., Asana, Trello), calendar apps (e.g., Google Calendar), and task managers (e.g., Todoist). Using these tools help you stay organized by allowing you to create detailed to-do lists and categorize tasks into work and personal categories.
By labeling tasks as urgent, important, both, or neither, you can prioritize effectively, focusing on what truly matters.
5. Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is crucial in combating urgency culture because it fosters a calm, present-focused mindset that helps you manage stress and make thoughtful decisions. By practicing mindfulness, you become more aware of your thoughts and feelings, allowing you to recognize when you’re succumbing to the pressure of constant urgency.
Mindfulness encourages you to pause and assess what truly matters, promoting a balanced approach to work and reducing the likelihood of burnout. It helps you cultivate resilience and maintain focus, leading to improved productivity and well-being amidst a culture that often glorifies urgency.
If everything is urgent, there’s little opportunity for creative and deep work, which tends to flourish only when there’s time and space.
Utilising these tips will help you focus on what’s truly urgent in your organization and enable your team to deliver strong results and sustain high performance over time.
It can help to take a step back, prioritise your tasks and set boundaries.
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