Are you addicted to urgency?
“Moving away from an urgency addiction, towards Balanced planning boosts both personal and business health.”
There was a wonderful debate this week on our mentor group about how best to assist people to move from being driven by urgency to dealing with what is important. The simple and powerful Eisenhower Matrix is a classic tool to prioritise tasks (example shown) used by leaders across the world.
What jumped out from the discussion was an awareness of just how addictive the urgency quadrant is. Many of us get a thrill out of problem solving and a rush from dealing with a crisis. The hormones released when working under pressure can create a dizzying high.
Pausing to plan, though, is critical in the move towards lasting success and is part of caring for one’s personal health! A constant rush of adrenalin can lead to burnout, and serious physical and mental ill health.
As there is also a release of feel-good hormones in the ticking off on a to-do list (albeit at a lower rate), this alternative reward-satisfaction loop can help to wean one off the big highs of quadrant 1 urgency into the long-term strategic thinking and prioritised actions needed to build the future.
So, this week I am grateful to our mentor team who brought this important subject back into focus and am mindful of the importance of planning and prioritising – for my personal and business health.
I hope this reminder helped you too. Have a great week!
