What is urgent? + Survival School for Associates Free Webinar Series

You are the only one that gets to define when something is “urgent” for YOU.

Not the partner you are working for.

Not your clients. 

Not the notification on your email inbox. 

Not the ringing of your phone. 

But if you don’t have a definition or a process for deciding what is urgent…

Or if you are uncomfortable with deciding that something (particularly a request from someone else) isn’t urgent…

Urgent will always be the default. 

And when everything is urgent, of course you will live in a constant state of anxiety and overwhelm. 

Drinking from the fire hose. 

The worst part? 

When you are in that state of anxiety and overwhelm, you create more of it for yourself. 

By defaulting to thoughts like:

“There’s too much to do.”

“I can’t handle this.”

“There’s not enough time.”

Opening up the fire hose a little more. 

Deciding what is actually urgent and what isn’t really isn’t hard. 

For example, court deadlines and hearings. Time sensitive projects with actual trade offs for missing the deadline. I like my reasons for those being urgent. You probably do too. 

Most requests that come into my inbox? Not urgent. 

Requests that include false deadlines that someone else promised that don’t work with my schedule? Not urgent. 

The hard part is sticking to your decision. It’s hard for a few reasons. 

First, your unwillingness to feel the discomfort that comes with not treating everything as urgent. With not being hyper-responsive. The discomfort that comes with pushing back on the urgency culture we all live in. (It’s actually uncomfortable the way you are currently doing it too - but it’s a known discomfort.) Discomfort with handling the pushback you might get from others. 

Second, your mistaken belief that you can’t do anything differently. Because of what other people will think, say, or feel. Because of the potential trade offs. Because of what you will make it mean about you if you don’t treat everything as urgent. Because you’re telling yourself you don’t know how or you can’t. 

In short, what it takes is (1) deciding what urgent means to you and prioritizing your time accordingly, (2) being willing to feel some negative feelings while you stick by your decision, and (3) changing the way you think about yourself and what it means to be good at your job so that you can start reducing those negative emotions. 

You can start small by deciding a few things that aren’t urgent and testing your limits (and the limits of the people you work with). 

A ♥️ note to you: If you are struggling with how to prioritize and handle the barrage of “urgent” requests you get on a daily basis or you’d like to lessen the overwhelm and anxiety you feel on a daily basis, I can help. 

Join me for my FREE webinar on Managing Your Calendar and To-Do List - tomorrow October 17 at 1pm EST. 

Link to register: https://mailchi.mp/jenndealcoaching/survival-school-for-associates 

This is the first webinar in my Survival School for Associates series. You can learn more about that webinar series and pick up my free 6 Survival Skills for Associates at that same link.