Learn more about timemanagement with this collection
Seeking support from others
Identifying the symptoms of burnout
Learning to say no
Urgency puts us into reactive mode
The problem is that we’re continually bombarded with urgent work: emails, meetings, calls, and instead of being in control of our time and attention, we respond and act on someone else’s priorities.
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MORE IDEAS ON THIS
Deep attention vs. hyper attention
- Deep attention means putting our focus on one task for a long period of time and putting aside other external interruptions.
- Hyper attention is turning our focus swiftly between different tasks, opting for diverse information streams, and looking ...
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Urgent tasks will always come up
Instead of allowing them to take over your time, make a plan for how you’ll deal with them.
Begin by defining the tasks that demand 100% of your focus and the ones that can be dealt with while being interrupted. You want to give your most focused hours to your most important tasks.
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Make the urgency bias work for you
- Break your big projects down into simple manageable steps and then set a short deadline for each.
- Switch from “task urgency” to “time urgency” , to choose what really deserves your attention.
- Don’t let urgent tasks control the first hour of your day. Set aside blocks of ...
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The urgency bias
We usually give priority to unimportant tasks when there is a sense of urgency around them.
We’re actually psychologically wired to put aside important tasks in favor of tasks that feel more urgent. But spending our time taking care of urgent tasks can leave us feeling exh...
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Why it’s hard to ignore urgent tasks
A few explanations as to why it’s so hard to reject urgent tasks:
- The completion bias. Our brains crave the reward we get from checking off small to-dos from our list.
- Tunnel vision: When we get overwhelmed by the things we have to do, we ch...
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Related collections
Other curated ideas on this topic:
Mere Urgency Effect - Urgency trumps importance
The effect shows our tendency to prioritise perceived time-sensitive tasks over non-urgent tasks, even if the non-urgent jobs carry greater rewards.
This cognitive bias reveals why we will rather respond to emails at the expense of meaningful work. Moreover, research shows...
Make the urgency bias work for you
- Break your big projects down into simple manageable steps and then set a short deadline for each.
- Switch from “task urgency” to “time urgency” , to choose what really deserves your attention.
- Don’t let urgent tasks control the first hour of your day. Set aside blocks of ...
Time blocking your schedule
- Know your high-level priorities and goals.
- Start creating blocks for your time outside of work (morning routines, time with family/friends etc.)
- Schedule your most meaningful work for when your energy and attention naturally peak.
- Add blocks for reactive tasks each da...
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