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Urgent!: Strategies to Control Urgency, Reduce Stress and Increase Productivity

✍ Scribed by Dermot Crowley


Publisher
Wiley
Year
2020
Tongue
English
Leaves
231
Edition
1
Category
Library

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✦ Synopsis


Leverage the power of urgency to avoid burnout and increase performance

Urgency—that frantic feeling that we need to be doing more, and faster—is a destructive force in today’s workplace. Unnecessary urgency can be toxic, causing stress and burnout. But not all urgency is bad, and sometimes we really do need to get things done quickly. Too little urgency can lead to inaction and lost productivity. So how do we find the right balance where we can use urgency as a meaningful tool to keep productivity up, without generating burnout? Urgent! is a guide to using urgency for good to help achieve your goals, to drive success, and minimise stress for yourself, your teams, and your business.

This book will teach you to moderate urgency for yourself and those you lead. In our age of fast-paced technology, it’s easy to swing between extremes, working reactively one minute, and being inactive the next. The middle ground, described in this book, allows us to work in the “Active Zone” where we maximise proactivity and productivity. By following the practical strategies outlined in this book, readers will learn to understand urgency, become proactive rather than reactive, and lead teams to their fullest potential.

• Eliminate stress and burnout for yourself, your teams, and your businesses

• Learn how to dial urgency up or down, depending on the situation

• Keep teams working in the optimal productive zone by moderating urgency 

• Stay focused on what's important and learn prioritisation skills to avoid burnout

If you feel that you and your team are caught up in busy work, stressed to the max by competing demands, leaving no room to focus on what really matters, Urgent! will show you a new way of thinking, leading, and responding. Learn the skills to reduce overload, get more done, and achieve better performance each day.

 

✦ Table of Contents


Urgent!
Contents
About the author
Acknowledgements
A note from the author
June 2019
April 2020
Introduction
Why are we in so much of a hurry these days?
The urgency trap
The reactive zone
The inactive zone
The active zone
Moderating urgency
The Urgency Playbook
Everyone has a role to play
Workers
Managers
Leaders
Part I Understanding Urgency
Chapter 1 What is urgency and why does it matter?
The eight faces of urgency
The Reactor
The Conductor
The Over-Committer
The Last-Minute Delegator
The Distractor
The Hard Driver
The Procrastinator
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
The cost of urgency
Inefficient use of time and resources
Avoidable rework
An increase in stress levels
A drop in quality
Burnout and attrition
A compelling case for change
Chapter 2 Productive versus unproductive urgency
Fake urgency
Avoidable urgency
Reasonable urgency
How to spot unproductive urgency
First-minute, pressed upon us
Last-minute, pressed upon us
Self-inflicted, first-minute
Self-inflicted, last-minute
How reactive are you?
1. Frenzied
2. Disruptive
3. Disrupted
4. Productive
Part II Minimise Personal Reactivity
Creating a proactive workstyle
Chapter 3 Develop a proactive mindset
Mindset #1 — ‘I plan ahead’
Mindset #2 — ‘I am responsive, not reactive’
Mindset #3 — ‘I pay it forward’
Mindset #4 — ‘I do it right the first time’
Mindset #5 — ‘I prioritise by importance, not urgency
Mindset #6 — ‘I minimise procrastination’
Mindset #7 — ‘I think several steps ahead’
Level 1: Look the other way
Level 2: Kick blindly
Level 3: Receive and then look up
Level 4: Look up before receiving
Level 5: Anticipate future possibilities
Chapter 4 Working proactively
First–minute reactivity
Last-minute reactivity
The proactive zone
Working with a proactive schedule
1. Use one central system for actions
2. Manage activities by time
3. Highlight three critical priorities each day
4. Balance your time
5. Turn off email alerts
Chapter 5 Negotiating urgency
The six dials
Dial #1: time
Dial #2: quality
Dial #3: scope
Dial #4: resources
Dial #5: budget
Dial #6: risk
Understand the non-negotiables for your stakeholders
Part III Managing Team Urgency
Staying in the active zone
Chapter 6 Moderating urgency
1. Respond
2. Absorb
3. Mobilise
4. Defuse
Chapter 7 Respond
Reactive versus responsive
Create a circuit breaker
The space between reaction and response
Test assumptions
The language of urgency
React when required
Chapter 8 Absorb
Question why
Negotiate
Back your team
Identify the bigger YES
Ignore it if you can
Chapter 9 Mobilise
Set accountable deadlines
A culture of accountability
Explain context
Create traction with complex work
1. The deadline — Make it visible
2. The planning — Create a thumbnail sketch
3. The execution — Block out time
Push and pull to inspire action
Deal with urgency fatigue
Chapter 10 Defuse
Set the right example
Calm it down
Get on the balcony
Don’t reward reactivity
Next steps
Start with you
Then your team
And finally … your organisation
Then the world!
Index
EULA


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