95: Not Everything Is Urgent! And how this increases your stress response

“We're not creating oxygen here…” I heard this quote from Adrienne Dorison the founder of the Run Like Clockwork program a while back and it made me chuckle.

But it was also a good reality check. A major productivity trap is believing that everything on your to do list is equally important and equally urgent.

But that's just not true. Chances are you're not creating oxygen in your job and those tasks aren't emergencies all of the time.

Why acting like every task is urgent take’s a toll on your brain, body, and Productivity.

A few months ago I was taking this boot camp from Adrienne Dorison, the founder of the Run Like Clockwork program, which is focused on improving productivity and efficiency for small business owners. She was telling this story about how many years ago when she was working for a company, they were always called in, sometimes in the middle of the night, often on weekends and on their days off, for something that was “urgent”.

On day, on one of these “urgent” tasks, her colleague is standing next to her and says something like “Why are we in such a rush? It's not like we're creating oxygen here.”

The story is very funny and I loved how it brought into perspective just how urgent or not so urgent some of those tasks are that we put on our to-do list. We often respond that way, like everything is urgent, like our jobs are creating oxygen for the world, when in reality most of the tasks that we have on our to-do list don't need to be done right this second (especially if it’s the middle of the night when you should be sleeping, or the weekend when you should be spending time relaxing or with family).

URGENT!

The story reminded me of one of my very first summer student jobs in university. I was working in this warehouse at a local metals plant. There was me and one other student and our job was to fill orders for parts that came in from around the plant.

Wherever a person was in the plant, they would put in their parts order (over what may have been a fax machine… yes, it was that long ago). The order would print out on the printer in the warehouse, we’d get the order, we'd fill it, and we'd have it ready when the worker came in to pick up whatever tools or parts they were needing.

I'll always remember there was one person ( I do remember his name, over 20 years later, but I won't shame him by saying it here) and no matter what he was ordering or needed to pick up, he would put on the top “URGENT!”.

Now often these orders would be for something like one screw or bolt… and not only would he say that this is urgent, but he would also put in these urgent requests multiple times a day.

My co-workers and I would all chuckle and kind of roll our eyes to ourselves when this person's order would come in because we'd know it's not really that urgent and he was going to have another “urgent” request probably an hour from now. Still, we would go get the order for the one or two little nuts and bolts have them ready for him.

Inevitable he would rush in, (because it is urgent in his mind) pick up that part and he would rush back to whatever he was doing this would go on and on all day… all summer long.

All the regular warehouse workers knew this person by name and knew to expect these urgent requests.

Did you notice how inefficient his approach was? This fellow is putting in these urgent requests every hour or so, he's stopping what he's doing, he's going to pick up those one or two parts that he needs, and then coming back to do the same thing over and over and over again.

Not only did he take up time as a summer student, because I have to drop what I'm doing to fill this urgent request, but he's not very efficient on his end, because it interrupted his own work multiple times a day. With just a little bit of pre-planning he could have done one or two orders a day instead of ten urgent ones.

Where the Stress Comes From

We've all been there- that boss that drops that stack of papers on your desk and says “I need this in an hour”. Everything is urgent everything is pressured.

We know in our minds that not everything is actually urgent. I knew that that fellow at my summer job wasn't going to burn the plant down if he didn't have that one tiny bolt, especially when he'd ordered something similar just a few hours ago. Often, the pressure to feel everything is urgent comes from our colleagues and supervisors, but it can also come from ourselves.

We have these massive to do lists with 40,000 things on it. We know realistically we don't have enough time in the day to actually get through it all but we feel that pressure and our brain goes into overachieving and perfectionist mode.

We start to worry about those 40,000 things that are on the list. Everything feels urgent! It feels like we're never going to have enough time and no matter how much you check off that list, you're always playing catch up.

It feels like there are things that we can't cut, that all of it needs to get done, that all of it is equally important! But the reality is that’s likely not true. Our priorities shift sometimes throughout the day, sometimes throughout projects that we're working on, sometimes throughout the year.

Why Every Task Being Urgent is a Problem

Today I'll share one strategy that I use to help my brain prioritize what's actually urgent and needs to get done. But first, let’s talk about why this view or mindset that everything on your to do list is equally urgent and equally important is actually a problem.

1. It’s Super Overwhelming

If I have 20 things on my list and I look at it in the morning and I say “oh my gosh, all of these things are equally important! I have to get all of these things done!” that is so overwhelming because, in reality, I probably only have enough time to get 5 or 6 things done. So what does that mean for the rest of the tasks?

Well, my brain says I'm not working hard enough, I'm lazy, not good at my job, or whatever other mental nonsense and stories that my brain wants to come up with to explain why I'm not getting through all those urgent tasks.

It’s important to remember that sometimes really urgent tasks will come up. But when everything already feels urgent, it’s just adding more fuel to the fire.

What if your car unexpectedly breaks down but your schedule is packed so tight that you don't have 15 minutes to wait for an Uber or for you're spouse to come pick you up to drive you to work? When you get to work, only 15 minutes late, you’ll already feel behind.

When our schedules are packed, and everything on our list is a “must-do” or equally important, it leads to less productivity in the long run. With this mindset, we're stressed and burnt out, and end up jumping from task to task because my brain says “Oh my gosh, this other thing is super important! I better work on that. Oh no I got to work on this. Oh no I got to work on that. Oh no this new distraction came up.” You see where I'm going here, right?

2. It Leads to a Chronic Stress Response

A chronic stress response in our body is really tough on us over time.

Your body and brain are designed to respond to urgent stresses. You've probably heard of the fight or flight response, your brain's innate natural response system to deal with danger, threats, and urgent situations that come up.

For example, if walk into a room where my daughter is playing on the couch and all of a sudden, I see something flying towards me out of the corner of my eye, my fight or flight response is going to kick in my brain is going to go into that respond to this urgent threat mode.

My heart's going to start beating faster, my breathing is going to change a bunch of blood's going to rush to my arms and legs so I can move faster, even my vision's going to change so I can react and dodge out of the way of whatever has gone flying towards my head (usually some type of stuffed animal).

This also happens if you’re out and you catch a car coming towards you out of the corner of your eye. For our ancestors, this response was triggered if some giant bear jumped out at us from the woods.

That stress response is designed to get you out of danger. The trouble is, while this works really well for things that are actually urgent, in our modern world our brains have determined that everything is urgent.

It's not just that bear or that flying toy that we need to watch out for, it's that email that needs to be responded to right now, that permission slip that needs to be signed, that grocery list that needs to be taken care of, or those piles of laundry, or that project that you've been procrastinating on at work.

Our brain views all of these things as equally urgent. So instead of that normal fight or flight stress response kicking in to help us deal with a crisis and then turning off, the stress response stays activated in your brain, which means that you're feeling rushed and pressured all the time. You don't get a chance to relax or have our body's natural calming systems bring down some of that stress.

When stress builds in our bodies and minds, we can even develop what are called somatic symptoms- physical symptoms that we develop in response to this chronic stress.

Ever feel like shoulders are super tight, your back is bugging you all the time, you're getting more headaches than normal, or your stomach is dealing with lots of indigestion and issues? Maybe you’re not sleeping as soundly as you'd like and to make matters worse, all of this chronic stress response makes us less efficient. So, we get less done, which leaves more on our to-do list and the stress response continues… Sound familiar?

Overwhelmed by urgent tasks? We can fix this.

So how do you get your brain out of that habit of thinking that everything is urgent and convince yourself that you're not creating oxygen here. How do you make your brain believe that the world is not going to end if you don't check off everything on my to do list, even though I know it feels that way?

Let me walk you through one scheduling strategy that I use to help my brain make some of these decisions about what’s urgent and what’s not (at least right now) a little bit easier.

I love scheduling. And I do a lot of pre-planning to make my weeks more efficient. One of the things that I do when I'm scheduling is I color code my schedule.

Partly It's because it looks nice and I like looking at it, but it also helps me keep track of what tasks fall into which category.

For example, I have tasks for my clinical practice - client work, report writing, etc. But I also have my consulting, my education, my online business like The Bold Life podcast and so those tasks are coded and colored differently than my clinical tasks.

I also have weekly tasks that I do every week, things to keep my business running like updating my schedule and keeping track of tasks, and all of these things are different colors. Part of the reason that I do this is it makes it easier for me to set priorities in my schedule.

Every day before I shut my computer down, I plan my next day schedule. I open up my calendar and I take a look at all those color-coded tasks and I ask myself, “What are the things in my schedule that are a must do? What really are those urgent tasks that can't be moved?” Those are my must-do items.

Then I'll have other tasks that are nice to get done if I have time, but if they can't get done today I can move them to some other time. Like paperwork or recording podcast episodes or making social media posts.

By color coordinating my schedule in that in that way, it makes it really easy for me to take a quick look at my schedule for the week. Then, if something unexpected does come up I know what I can shift.

Having a strategy like that color coding strategy will allow you to more effectively and efficiently determine what really is urgent right now and what isn't a priority, which means it could be eliminated or moved to another day.

BONUS RESOURCES TO GET MORE DONE IN YOUR DAY

Check out my free Daily Productivity Checklist for more of the strategies I do every day to get more done (with less stress) and so I can save mental resources for my priorities. You can get your copy at drnicolebyers.com/checklist.

Not Everything Is Urgent

Our brains tend to count everything on our to-do list as urgent. Sometimes that pressure comes from outside of us, but sometimes it comes from ourselves - that tendency towards perfectionism or overachieving or setting ourselves to crazy high and sometimes unmanageable standards.

The truth is, most of the time “we're not creating oxygen”. Everything isn't as urgent as our brains make us feel. By being clear on what's urgent or priority right now, and what’s not, it can take off some of that mental load and the stress of believing that everything on your to do list has to get done today, because that's just not true.

Show Highlights

[02:30] We aren’t creating oxygen here. Not everything is urgent.

[05:11] It’s very inefficient to view everything as urgent.

[06:23] Our massive to-do lists are adding pressure unnecessarily.

[07:44] It’s super overwhelming when everything is urgent or equally important.

[08:26] When something comes up that is actually urgent, it creates even more stress.

[09:21] This also leads to a chronic stress response in your body and brain.

[12:27] How do you get your brain out of the habit of thinking everything is urgent?

[14:10] Before I shut down for the day, I plan and color coordinate the next day’s schedule.

[15:56] Your quick recap of the episode.

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