How to Stop Urgency Culture and Being Burned Out?
Read Time: 3 min
How I fixed my symptoms of a burnout, by creating the best work culture.
With my simple four-step process, you can do it too.
I remember a time when I was nonstop on fire.
I fought the fires that threatened to burn down my business every day.
I woke up anxious, with cold sweat on my forehead and my heart pounding.
Another short night, plagued by nightmares.
I need to get up and start working.
There are so many fires burning.
I need to fix them all ASAP.
I got pulled in ten directions at the same time.
A new hire seems to have problems.
The next milestone of our product is late.
The lawyers are sitting in my neck to fix that compliance risk we might be having.
The accountants are not sending us the numbers we need.
The list goes on…
Thoughts are spinning, and my heart races when I fall into bed after another 14-hour day.
Fourteen hours is the standard these days.
I feel burned out.
This time left me scared, and I'm still working to clean up the mess it left inside me.
It's a journey.
All this is because of the culture of urgency prevalent in our modern corporate world.
No wonder everyone is getting burned out and quits their job.
What is Urgency Culture?
Urgency culture is a company culture that defines itself through:
Fast-paced deadlines.
Short response times.
Long working hours and always being available and reachable.
Success is defined by being busy and the number of items finished from the backlog.
Urgency culture is one of the most common corporate cultures I see today.
How can we expect something different from companies led by profits?
Hard quotas to fulfill and little regard for the individual's health.
We're made to believe this is the only way to run a successful business.
It isn't.
We can have fun at work, focus on solving our customers' biggest problems, and still make a lot of money.
But why is urgency so bad?
Creating a sense of urgency gives our bodies the impression of danger when there is none.
We react with a response of fight, flight, or freeze.
We are in an endless loop of fighting, fleeing, or frozen by anxieties.
Being in this state puts immense stress on our bodies and minds.
Our bodies can manage this stress for a short time.
But what if this stress at work persists 10 hours a day for years?
We burn out.
I was burning out.
How to Fix Urgency Culture?
The first step is to realize that nothing is threatening our lives.
In our Western world, there are no life-or-death situations if you're not a doctor.
Everything can wait until you address it, if it needs addressing at all.
Realize that nothing needs an immediate response:
Not your tax accounting.
Not when the government or lawyers write you.
And also not when a client wants something done NOW.
You can wait a few minutes, hours, or even days until you respond.
This gives you time to calm down and think things through.
What is essential right now?
What should I do first?
What things turn out irrelevant if I think briefly?
When I started not to respond immediately, something crazy happened.
Most of the problems thrown at me by the people around me resolve themselves!
If I give them the opportunity, people will find solutions to their problems.
Our society creates an urgency around everything.
Marketers and salespeople want you to be in an anxious state.
Getting you to buy something is easier when you're not thinking right.
Pause and think.
Then, decide with a calm and secure mind.
Here is my four-step process to get out of any urgency culture:
Slow down and repeat: “Nothing is so urgent that it needs to be done right now.”
Pause and calm down.
Focus on the essential 20% and cut out the other 80%.
Do one thing at a time. Slow and steady, you reach further.
This process led to some profound changes in my work life.
I sort my inbox only once a day in the last 10 minutes before signing off.
I process the critical messages in my inbox once a week; I block or delete the rest right away.
I don't accept any incoming phone calls if they're not scheduled in advance.
I only work on the tasks I scheduled yesterday for today, with no extra "quick” requests added.
I schedule meetings and tasks a week in advance.
I get the day's work done within 4 hours of work per day.
There is space in the timeline to skip a work day when I don't feel like it.
What are you struggling with most when it comes to stress at work?
Tell me in the comments; I want to figure out how to help entrepreneurs like us best.
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Thanks for reading to the end!
You rock!
Cheers,
Marcel