Don't Get Caught in the Urgency Trap

It seems the world is moving faster and faster these days. You constantly have information streaming to you from people in the office, meetings, email, voice messages, texts. You're trying to keep on top of it all and it can sometimes feel practically impossible. So what do you do? Begin by determining what's really important to get done. Separate what's important from what's just urgent.  Don't Get Caught in the "Urgency Trap". The problem with all the technological resources we have for communication is that they are making everything seem urgent. It can be very tempting to get caught up in it and spend most of your day responding to email instead of focusing on what's really important. It's easy to believe everything is important. But, in reality, some things just are more important than others. If you tend to think everything is important, it will be very difficult to prioritize. If you find yourself living in the Crisis category most of the time, your productivity will weaken and you will quite simply just burn out. It's unsustainable. The only way out is to focus on what you can do to plan for, prepare and prevent the kinds of things that force you to operate in a crisis. When the crisis does occur, you'll be equipped to handle it and move on much more easily.