The Tyranny of the Urgent
“Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future…”
Some days it feels like Steve Miller was singing about my calendar.
I’ll start the morning with clarity about what really matters. Then the little things show up—emails that “just need a quick reply,” meetings that expand beyond their purpose, texts that break my focus. One after another, they eat away at my day.
Science shows those “quick things” cost more than we think. Research on attention residue (Sophie Leroy, University of Minnesota) found that when we switch tasks, part of our brain stays stuck on the last one. That residue makes it harder to focus deeply on what comes next. So it’s not just the five minutes for an email; it’s the extra drag it leaves behind.
By evening, the work that actually matters hasn’t moved an inch. And it’s easy to shrug and say “I’ll get to it tomorrow.” But tomorrow has a way of looking a lot like today.
So lately, I’ve been working on a few guardrails:
Block the big rocks. If something’s essential, I protect that time in the calendar with everything I’ve got.
Make the trade-offs visible. Every “yes” to the small stuff is a “no” to the big stuff. Saying that out loud forces me to face what I’m choosing.
Run the reset question. When I feel drifted off course, I ask: “Is this moving me closer to what matters most?” If the answer is no, I course-correct.
Celebrate the progress, not just the finish. Some days, forward motion is the win, even if it’s just 45 minutes of focused work on the thing I care about most.
I’m not writing this because I’ve mastered it. I’m writing it because I need the reminder as much as anyone.
