Why Not All Urgent Tasks are Actually Urgent

On busy days, with increasing tasks and responsibilities, it seems like a no brainer to power through our to do list and get the majority of it done. This sounds helpful in theory, but in practice when our to-do list needs multiple days to be completed this is a recipe for burnout.

An important thing to remember is, not all tasks are created equal. Even the urgent tasks may have items required in a few hours vs items required in a day, and based on that we can reposition them in our lists.

Another point to consider is that whenever we are contacted for a new task, there’s a false sense of urgency to get things done that could be misleading. A team member could come to you with a task saying “its urgent and please get it done as soon as you can”, and if you don’t ask them further you’d have to rank it high on your list and have one more urgent thing to do.

However, if you ask them “can you clarify what do you mean by it’s urgent?” you’d have a more accurate outlook such as:

• well we need it done this week
• well we need it done end of today
• well we need it done today or we’d miss an important deadline that would cost the company x dollars

Unfortunately, urgent is a broad term that is defined differently between teams, departments, and even companies. I say unfortunately because sometimes its used interchangeably with important and could lead you to work late on something that could’ve been pushed to a second day or week instead. While in other times you could need a task urgently done in 3 hours and the team receiving your request assumes they have a few days.

A small note, if this all seems too silly to even need an explanation, trust me I know. But boy have I seen dramatic situations in companies because of this simple word “urgent”. Leading to frustrations, miscommunications, and drama……

Short Term Fixes:

• If you’re the one being asked for an urgent task: make sure to align with your stakeholders, as per the questions and examples mentioned above. Is what they need something to be done or is it something urgent that would affect you or another team’s results ?
• If you’re the one asking for an urgent task: clearly state the day or time it’s needed (Ex. Monday or in 3 hours), and most importantly the impact that would happen if it gets missed or delayed (Ex. won’t be able to add it “task or file” to the monthly Top Management Meeting, or company would be delayed on submitting a certification that would lead to monetary fine) as this puts things in perspective for other teams.

Long Term Solutions:

• If possible in your company or with stakeholders you work mostly with, align on what urgent specifically means. (Same day, 2 hours, 2 days, exc..)

Bonus Tip:

Once you identify a task (it) as truly urgent, work on it and show your commitment to support. If you face challenges (and you will), ask questions to help facilitate getting it done rather than asking for it to be removed or mentioning that you have no time for it.

It’s important to show your support to other teams just like you’d expect them to support you as well. Try to be a Leo (someone supportive of teams and helpful), rather than a Neo (someone saying no to any extra task or support asked from them).

Till next time 🙂 !