It isn’t uncommon to see emails we receive with URGENT in bold caps in the subject line, screaming for attention. In a zeitgeist tailored to deliver and expect the instant, with tolerance levels and patience in high scarcity, not much thought is attributed to these attention grabbing manipulations. The video on this link attempts to distinguish one from the other aka urgent Vs important.
Most of the effort is in putting out the fires. Life is a perennial state of emergency where time, effort and resources are constantly ploughed in, leaving very little time for the far more important work that we need to do.
Distraction is omnipresent and no bigger than what is bandied about as urgent. As someone said ” Don’t watch the clock, do what it does “. Perhaps we should resist trading the important work for the urgent distraction of right now.
ASAP( As soon As Possible) is a trap: if the focus is more on soon than possible.