The Gift of Urgent Thinking

Do you ever get caught out by urgent thinking, believing that if you can just get X done, you’ll be okay, and then making it more important than basic things like rest or exercise? If you answer yes, me too, and I’ve never met a human who didn’t at some point.

At the moment we’re about to embark on a home renovation and it’s definitely easy to slip into this sort of “I’ll be okay when… the renovation is done/we’ve chosen the paint colours/we know exactly when the builder will start/finish, etc.” thinking.

I don’t know about you, but I find that it usually goes along with me being a less patient with my family and life not being so much fun for anyone.

In the past I’d generally go full force into “getting X done”, even sacrificing exercise or sleep or time with my children to make it happen. These days if I start down this track, I catch myself a lot sooner. This makes life more enjoyable and also my actual productivity, both in work and personal life, has sky-rocketed.

I thought I’d share what I’ve seen that’s helping me so much, in case it helps you…

”Urgency” is purely a state of mind, or a feeling.

The feeling of urgency is not telling me about the circumstances or what needs done, even when it really seems like it is.

The feeling of urgency is telling me that I’ve gone off track and am taking a made-up story seriously. A story that I’ll somehow be more okay than I am now when X is done.

The feeling of urgency is a brilliant and reliable red flag - a signal to step back from the task until it doesn’t feel so urgent – the complete opposite of what it seems to be telling me (i.e. to work longer, harder and faster on the thing that seems urgent).

The feeling of urgency is a gift - an invitation to ask myself the question, is there something I need here? For example, a break, a rest, water, food, fresh air, connection, laughter, an early night, etc.

Whatever really does need done, I’ll do it 100 times better and more efficiently when I’ve taken a break, re-gained perspective and fallen out of the made-up story that I’m not already okay.