Aug
24
Urgency Addiction
BySome friends were talking about the problem of urgency addiction. Here was some ideas I told them about:
I’ve coached quite a few people with urgency (adrenaline)ﾃつ addiction. You know you are addicted when you can’t slow down even when there is no reason to hurry. You are usually late or just barely make it on time. Being still makes you anxious.
Adrenaline feels good, but used as an energy source for long term and your body starts to break down. Often people feel inadequate and insufficient
ﾃつ ﾃつ ﾃつ
Step 1. Get to know your triggers, like:
Overpromising
Running late
Doing “shoulds”
Procrastination
Speeding
Trying to prove yourself
Not asking for what you need
Tolerations and little annoyances that need fixing
Blowing things out of proportion/creating dramas
ﾃつ ﾃつ ﾃつ
Step 2. Monitor your triggers
Write down your triggers. Journal your feelings surroundingﾃつ your triggers. Make checklists so you know when they are most prevelant.
ﾃつ ﾃつ ﾃつ
Step 3: Be willing to stay with the uncomfortableness of being still and slowing down.
It will feel better with practice. Notice your feelings of “I’m not doing enough” and “How can I slow down, I have too much to do.” Notice how much of the urgency you actually create yourself. ﾃつ
ﾃつ ﾃつ ﾃつ
Step 4: Come up with solutions from some of the triggers:
Stop trying to fix other people’s problems
Arrive early
Underpromise
Eliminate some committments
Cut out caffeine
Use systems
Say no
Adding breathing space to your day
Be realistic about deadlines ( I found I had missed deadlines by about two days, so now I add two days to all my deadlines)
Consciously slow down – savor your food, don’t walk fast when you don’t need to, drive the speed limit
Taking care of the tolerations
Take some time today to look ahead at what you can prepare for
Leave time for clean up, putting projects away, filing and returning calls
Take half a day a week to go through loose ends, work out details, planning, setting goals
Block off a day per month to play catch up – getting to the bottom of your in box, filing, setting monthly goals, getting rid of tolerations and procrastinations
Put less on your to do list
ﾃつ ﾃつ ﾃつ
Step 5: Find healthier sources of energy:
Exercising
Deep breathing
Taking work breaks
Healthy eating
Notice when you feel stressed and ask yourself what you need
Relax every day
Do things that are fun for you
Sleep
Do you have any ideas to share?
You can find similar articles below
- Is it really urgent?
- In Praise of Slowness
- There Must Be More Than This
- Setting spiritual goals
- Flowing
What does the IT worker do? Their whole life is fixing other people’s problems. Or the police officer? The promises are made by managers, so they’re not in the worker’s control. And the manager won’t let you take a day to catch up because tickets are backing up.