Things aren’t that urgent.  They just feel that way.

Something we’ve been thinking about a lot lately: false urgency. 

It seems to have struck a cord in a recent IG post as well, so we’re thinking that it’s something you’re frustrated with as well. 

How much of your day feels urgent? 

How many tasks do you do frantically, trying to smooth something over or fix a mistake or because you’re running out of time?

Speed and optimization seem to be two integral words in our productivity culture, ingrained from even our youngest years. 

Like in school – who could get done the quickest? To be last was to lose. 

I can’t be the only one with memories of team review games at the blackboard, heart pounding, intent only on not being the slowest. 

So now as adults, we continue this mindset. 

Work should be done at an increasingly fast pace. 

Emails and DMs need answered instantly. 

We’re expected to continually produce, on demand, within the arbitrary timelines we set upon ourselves. And we do this to ourselves!

But does this urgent pace even help us? And who decided on this pace, anyway? (Psst. You didn’t)

Kind of reminds me of when we mentally beat ourselves up – like thinking we need to be hard on ourselves in order to improve. (People who always need to fix something after all, always need a solution to purchase!)

But we’re learning that self compassion is actually what we need when we inevitably make mistakes. 

So maybe the same is true with urgency. 

Maybe counter to what we’ve been raised to think, what we really need is more thoughtfulness. More downtime. More space. 

Maybe the only way to really buck this system of MORE is with :gasp: less time working. Maybe it’s setting our own time agendas and guarding that time fiercely. 

🤷‍♀️ 🤷‍♀️ 

So what do you think – how do you experience time urgency? How do you deal with it? Are you craving a slower pace as well? We’d love to learn about your experience! Or head on over to @hireher.biz on IG and jump into the conversation!

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Alix Bryan