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Do you have a hard time prioritising? Do you have trouble deciding what is urgent and what is important? Does it seem all tasks are urgent?
Now the world of work has accelerated and deadlines for tasks and projects have shortened. But it is also true that we often find ourselves immersed in a state of apparent and permanent urgency, created by ourselves or others, which we could avoid. And really it is all about making decisions.
We actually spend our life making decisions: get up or sleep five minutes more. Eat bread or cereals for breakfast. Put on the black or the blue trousers.
However, when we find ourselves bombarded with tasks, all seemingly important or worse, all urgent, our decision-making capacity can falter.
A certain pressure makes us more productive and avoids procrastination. But living in a constant state of urgency will only cause us negative stress. The problem is that we might get used to it, so that is seems normal to work reactively from urgency to urgency. But that we might get to consider it normal does not mean that it is not detrimental to our productivity and health.
How to get out of the vicious circle of urgencies?
As I mention in the post on proactivity, our mind tends to give more importance to urgencies and contingencies that arise than to things we might have at hand and that may be more important.
But we can learn to recognise that everything is neither as urgent as they want us to believe nor for the day before yesterday. In fact, if at your company everyone works from urgency to urgency, and you are not working at the emergency room of a hospital precisely, you should become suspicious and analyse the environment.
In my opinion the majority of urgencies are due to a lack of foresight, planning and organisation. And this leads to working with too tight deadlines.
In order to learn how to deal with urgencies, let us see first the questions you should pose when you face them.
The majority of #urgencies at companies are due to a lack of #foresight and #organisation Share on X
How to determine the level of urgency
In order to assess the real level of urgency of a task, and by the way its importance, I recommend you take a moment to ask yourself these questions:
1. Which is the real deadline?
When you have been requested something, have they really told you it is urgent? Or do you tend to leave whatever you are doing to attend to interruptions?
If they really tell you it is urgent, ask for when exactly. Maybe it does not mean the next half hour but until this afternoon or even for the next day. If you additionally know the objective and purpose of what you are being requested you will also be able to assess whether the deadline given is reasonable or you are being pressured unnecessarily.
2. What would happen if this task would not be done?
Now this may sound a bit radical. However I sometimes get the feeling that there are tasks being invented to keep us busy. But they actually do contribute neither to the company’s productivity nor better organisation.
Think about whether you are putting pressure on yourself over a certain task, but it actually would not be fatal to leave it undone, at the least for the time being.
This takes us to the next question.
3. What is the task’s goal?
Ask yourself who will benefit from the task and which added value it produces, i.e. what is its use.
4. Do you have to do the task?
I am not in favour of dodging issues or the mentality “this is not my job”. But if you are overwhelmed with your duties and tasks and on top of that receive requests for help or are constantly interrupted with urgencies, you may risk collapsing. Therefore, it can be a good idea to ask yourself whether there is another person capable of doing this task.
5. Who is requesting it?
It can be interesting for the decision on the level of importance and urgency to take into account who is giving you the task. If it is your boss (or your boss’s boss) one can assume that the task is of higher relevance than that from a colleague. Also, it can be more complicated to ask if you have to do it. But I am not saying it is impossible. Bosses are human beings, too. So if you do a certain thing well, it is probable that he/she will ask you for it again. That is why I recommend to clarify the priorities with your boss in case of doubt.
6. What is the importance?
Compared to your other tasks and obligations, which is this task’s importance? Then according to this and its deadline decide when to get it done.
Before launching yourself into an #urgency determine #deadline #goal #importance & #benefit Share on X
The types of urgency
Now you know the questions which will help you make better decisions about the real urgency of an issue. So next let us see four types of urgencies we may encounter in my opinion:
- Real urgencies
- Urgencies to solve immediately but anticipate in the future
- Negotiable urgencies
- Urgencies which are not
Next I will give you some examples for each type of urgency in order to illustrate them better. And given that they are real cases that have happened to me, I will share how I dealt with them.
Not all #urgencies are really #urgent. Learn to distinguish the different types Share on X
Real urgency
This is an issue to solve as soon as possible because not doing so could have negative consequences or mean a lost opportunity.
Example: I finally manage to talk to a client I am trying to fix an appointment with to detect the needs and offer a product or service. It turns out that two days later he will have a meeting where he would like to present the service X. So he asks whether I can send him a proposal. As well as fixing a date for a subsequent meeting, I quickly contact the colleague who can prepare this proposal. I ask her to send it possibly along the next morning so the client has time to study it before presenting it in his meeting. Obviously this is an opportunity to grab by the scruff and a situation where quick reaction is needed.
A real #urgency is characterised by possible negative #consequences and loss of #opportunities Share on X
Urgency to solve immediately but anticipate in the future
I think in this category we can find many of the issues arising day to day. There is no choice but solving them as soon as possible. However, as they are due to a lack of foresight and planning, I suggest trying to prevent and anticipate them in the future. This is not easy but personally I do not like to conform with status quo if that is detrimental to my productivity and wellbeing.
Example: A colleague shows up all stressed out because he has to go on a trip on the next day. He needs it approved but his boss is out of the office. On one hand he has requested the trip late. On the other hand his boss has not ensured the authorisation workflow during his absence. A clear example of lack of foresight and organisation. So I help the colleague with the authorisation and ensure that the travel agency books what he needs. But I also remind him that he ought to organise his trips with more foresight; and remind his boss to ensure somebody can authorise issues in his absence.
Example: I realise that I need to print out some things for a meeting in a while. So I do it quickly in order not be late for the meeting. But it is clear that I should have checked the agenda with foresight and organised my work better so I could have avoided the haste.
Detect #urgencies due to a lack of #foresight & learn to #prevent and #anticipate them Share on X
Negotiable urgencies
I consider a negotiable urgency something requested with a tight deadline. But from the knowledge you have about it you suspect that you could gain some time. However, this requires a certain courage and assertiveness.
Example: I know the next shareholder meeting will be at the beginning of May. They usually send the presentation two weeks prior to the shareholders. So I make a note for a deadline a few days earlier.
But suddenly, right during Spanish Holy Week I receive an e-mail requesting the presentation for Thursday that week (public holiday in Spain which they had not taken into account). So I call the colleague to confirm the date the presentation will be send to the shareholders. And it turns out that they had saved a tremendous time buffer because the week after they would be on holidays. I managed to negotiate a more reasonable deadline because I dared to question the situation.
However I often find that things are accepted without figuring out the reason or the room for maneuver, thus causing hurry and stress to oneself and other people affected collaterally, whose contribution is required.
Example: A colleague sends an e-mail about an agreement to be renewed. He has doubts about whether some conditions should be reviewed. The next day, as I had not replied yet, he comes asking about it. But this is an ongoing collaboration and also not an issue where a lot of money is at stake. I explain to him that I will try to reply as soon as possible but that I probably will not be able to consult the issue before next week.
There are occasions where it is not so much a question of leaving what you are doing to solve the issue, but simply informing the other so he/she knows you have seen the issue and has an idea of when he/she will receive the reply. Because uncertainty of not receiving a reply is worse.
There are #negotiable #urgencies. Be #brave and #assertive and negotiate a reasonable #deadline Share on X
Urgencies which are not
If you work in an environment with a lot of interruptions, there may arise issues which seem urgent but actually are not. At the beginning I mentioned that our mind tends to pay more attention to what has just come up. These situations require a mix of self-control and assertiveness. Self-control to take time to pose the questions I proposed earlier. And assertiveness to deal with the person interrupting with the supposed urgency.
An example can be something as simple as somebody sending you an e-mail (not flagged as urgent and the subject does not indicate it either) and showing up two minutes later to ask you whether you have seen it. This reminds me of the times of faxes when you would call the other to check whether it had arrived. In those cases I usually reply that I will read it as soon as I can and will then reply.
There are also people who tend to show up at your desk when something comes to their mind, instead of sending you an e-mail with the request or thinking first about whether they could solve it on their own. These are usually poorly organised people who want to get the issue off their mind as soon as possible by transferring their problem to somebody else. Depending on the situation I will ask them to send me an e-mail and that I will look into it. Or, if they have already rattled off what they need, I tell them where to look for it for themselves or take a note to solve it when it fits into my priorities according to the topic’s importance and urgency.
It is difficult to give you specific examples in this case because there are many options. Yet I think it is more a question of a working style in a company or that certain people have. So, the key is to learn to reply assertively in order to have your time respected. It is also essential to learn to dominate yourself, that is not to give in to the temptation of dealing with all interruptions arising without previously assessing their importance and real urgency.
Avoid temptation to attend to #urgencies which are not with #SelfControl & #assertiveness Share on X
Which urgencies do you encounter in your day to day?
The few examples shared with you are those that have come to my mind whilst writing this post. But there are many more.
If you face urgencies often and doubt how to gain control of your time, I invite you to share examples in the comments. I will be happy to try and give you my point of view and how I would act in the situation posed.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row]
