Does everything always feel like a fire drill on your team? False urgency, or unproductive busyness that doesn’t lead to meaningful progress, can unwittingly damage your team’s morale, well-being, and performance. Here’s how to combat false urgency on your team. 

First, recognize the signs. Are you and your team in a chronic state of overwhelm and reactivity? Do you and your team only have time to do “real work” in the evenings or on weekends? Try to pinpoint the source of this urgency. Are competing demands creating pressure? 

Then, prioritize ruthlessly. Help your team separate the tasks that are actually urgent from the ones that can wait. And remember, sometimes subtracting work and discontinuing low-stakes projects is the best way to boost productivity on the work that really matters.

Finally, protect your team from external requests. The inflow of requests we receive at work can be daunting. Some may be genuinely urgent, but most things can wait. If your team members are juggling many outside requests, give them clear guidelines about which ones to accommodate and empower them to question requests that have unrealistic timelines or fall outside the team’s remit.
This tip is adapted from “5 Tactics to Combat a Culture of False Urgency at Work,” by Dina Denham Smith
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