Have you noticed how even on fairly normal days, there is a constant feeling that something needs your attention right away? When most people wake up, they do not reach for a glass of water or coffee. Instead, they check their phone and the alerts that came in overnight. But how many of these alerts are actually urgent? The news alert about politics or the email about an online sale could probably have waited until after breakfast. Whether it is a message, a task, or something you suddenly remember, everything starts to feel time-sensitive, even if it is not. As our information environment has become more hectic, the mind has slowly adjusted to a pace where everything feels immediate. Prakriti Saxena Poddar, Clinically Trained Mental Health & Wellbeing Expert and Global Head at Roundglass, explains why this happens.
When Urgency Starts to Feel Normal
Most of us do not realize when this shift happens because it occurs slowly. Over time, daily life becomes faster, with quicker replies and shorter gaps between tasks. If this continues long enough, it stops feeling like pressure and becomes the new normal. Science has a term for this phenomenon: shifting baseline syndrome. The brain adapts to this pace and begins to treat whatever appears in the moment as something that needs immediate attention. Not necessarily because it is important, but because you have become acclimated to urgency. Once that pattern sets in, even small things can feel urgent. The signal feels pressing, even when the consequences are not.
What This Does to the Mental State
When everything feels urgent, the nervous system rarely settles. There is a constant low-level activation, a feeling of needing to respond, move, or complete something. This can manifest as impatience, difficulty concentrating, or a sense of restlessness even during downtime. Many people also find it harder to prioritize clearly when all tasks carry a similar sense of urgency. The result is a kind of stressful mental crowding. From a cognitive perspective, the brain favors what is present and visible over what is distant or abstract due to what psychologists call present bias. Over time, this shifts decision-making. Urgency is defined by your brain based on what appears most recently, not by what truly matters.
Recognizing and Labeling False Urgency in Real Time
There are several strategies to manage these pressures. One of the most useful shifts is learning to pause and evaluate urgency before responding. A simple internal check can help: Is this time-sensitive, or does it only feel that way? Not all requests require immediate action. Some simply arrive in a way that quickly captures attention. Labeling helps here. Noting a task as "urgent," "important," or "can wait" creates a meaningful gap between impulse and action. That gap is often enough to prevent reactive decision-making. We are slowly losing the ability to assess what is truly important because everything we are bombarded with primes us for reactivity over reflection.
Working with Priority, Not Pressure
Urgency is not the only factor to consider; importance counts too. Clarity improves when priorities are defined before the day begins. The 80/20 principle can be useful here, as a small proportion of tasks typically accounts for a large share of outcomes. Identifying your 20 percent early in the day reduces the tendency to get pulled into less meaningful work. Structuring the day around these priorities rather than incoming demands shifts the sense of control. Calendars can support this when used intentionally. Instead of only tracking meetings or obligations, they should also reflect focused work time and recovery gaps. This creates a visual not only of what requires your attention but also of how much attention you have to give.
Aligning Tasks with Energy, Not Just Time
Not all hours in the day are equal. A brief practice of noticing when focus is highest, when thinking feels sharper, and when energy dips can make a difference. Over a few days, patterns tend to emerge. When important work is aligned with higher-energy periods, it requires less effort and creates less strain. Routine or lighter tasks can then be moved to lower-energy windows. This reduces the friction that often adds to the sense of urgency.
Not everything that feels urgent is important, and not everything important will feel urgent. Learning to tell the difference is less about time management and more about attention. When that distinction becomes clearer, the pace of your day changes, not necessarily by doing less, but by responding more deliberately.
