Urgent or Just Important? How to Avoid Unnecessary Stress at Work

by Niamh Moynihan on May 5, 2025

Communication

Can you tell the difference between an urgent request and an urgent person? For years, the lines between the request and the requester blurred for me.

The result? Misaligned expectations and unnecessary panic. Often, I ended up working on the wrong things, creating extra stress elsewhere in my day.

Frequently, when I dropped everything to complete a task as soon as possible, the person who made the request was too busy focusing on something else to even notice. I’d end up heading back to my desk, frustrated and playing catch-up, wondering why I'd rushed in the first place.

If this scenario sounds familiar, learning to distinguish between an urgent person and an urgent task can significantly improve your workday—and your peace of mind.

Or perhaps you're now reflecting and thinking you might actually be the urgent person at work. Honestly, at various points in my career, I was exactly that person, unknowingly causing my team unnecessary stress and urgency. It was never intentional, but I could only clearly see it once I'd stepped back from that environment.

Recognising Urgency: Tasks vs People

It’s essential to recognise the signs of an urgent person and establish clear criteria for what constitutes an urgent task.

I'll begin with the urgent task, as it initially seems easier. To genuinely understand a task's urgency, you must clearly identify what the task involves, what specific problem it solves, and, importantly, how completing it will improve or resolve the situation. You should consider:

How significant the issue is, and the impact on people, revenue, customers, or reputation.
What exactly is at stake if the problem isn’t solved quickly?
What is the next immediate step after completing your task, and when is it scheduled to happen? (Often, you’ll find that resources aren't ready yet, meaning immediate action might be unnecessary.)

Important Tasks Aren't Always Urgent

It's also worth mentioning that tasks can still be highly important even if they aren't urgent. A common productivity challenge is the temptation to label important work as urgent.

While important tasks have significant long-term value, urgent tasks are time-sensitive. Mixing up the two often results in unnecessary stress and unproductive rushing.

Practical Ways to Clarify Task Urgency

I understand that if someone senior urgently requests a task, pausing to ask clarifying questions might feel uncomfortable. So, here's how you can approach this practically:

If you're in a junior role, quickly gather as much detail as possible, then consult your manager for guidance. You can begin working on the task in parallel if necessary. Early in your career, no one expects you to instinctively distinguish urgency. This skill develops through experience.

A helpful question you can ask is, "If I prioritise this, task X won't get done—which is more important?" If the requester doesn’t know your workload well, checking with your manager is usually the safest bet.

If you're more experienced, confidently pause for clarity. Even a two-minute conversation can significantly improve your perspective, helping you prioritise effectively.

Another useful self-check is to ask yourself: Would this request seem urgent if someone else were asking me? If not, the person is likely driving the urgency rather than the task itself.

How False Urgency Impacts Teams

For a considerable period in my career, I operated continuously in "urgent mode." Reflecting now, I realise that much of this urgency came from my reluctance to clarify expectations or push back. I worried that slowing down might reflect negatively on my ability.

I incorrectly believed that faster always meant better, often causing unnecessary stress for myself and my team, chasing solutions for the wrong problems and generating reports no one needed.

The surest way to test urgency is simply to fully understand the request. Taking just a few moments to evaluate the task’s reach, impact, timeline, and subsequent steps can significantly improve your clarity and confidence.

Developing Clear Guidelines on Task Urgency

If you're responsible for a team, establishing clear guidelines around prioritisation is essential. Your priorities could depend on factors like revenue impact, service-level agreements (SLAs), customer profiles, issue severity, or key internal stakeholders. There's no one-size-fits-all solution here; it depends entirely on your organisation's unique circumstances.

Ultimately, if you're the person receiving an urgent request, you will sometimes need to trust the other person's assessment of urgency. However, if you consistently find yourself being the "urgent person," remember the story of the boy who cried wolf: frequent false alarms mean your team stops taking genuine urgency seriously.

Final Thoughts

Learning to spot true urgency is a skill that benefits everyone, whether you lead a team or manage your own tasks. The next time a task is rushed over to you, take a few moments to slow down and respond rather than react and notice the difference in your approach.