Focus Digest: July 2023

Urgency Addiction in a Nutshell ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  Focus Digest: July 2023 Welcome to July, Friend. This monthly digest is for folks who want to create a more ideal schedule, get organized, and stay in control of the things that matter. Here's what to look forward to on the first Monday of every month: - A short article on a single concept around focus - A couple quotes that we've enjoyed thinking on - Links to interesting or related articles from our corner of the internet - Upcoming events and resource spotlights for our [Accelerator Members]( If this sparks any ideas I’d love to hear from you! (We send the digest once a month. If you'd rather not get the focus digest you can easily opt-out via the link at the bottom.) * * * 🚀 Kicking off July 18! Do Not Disturb Focus Booster (Jul 18 - Aug 20) Get the accountability, community, and systems you need to unlock creative momentum, sustain it day after day, and shut out distractions that derail your most important work. Step #1: The Distraction Detox → Discover how to manage the daily onslaught of notifications, overflowing inboxes, and false urgency that drain your focus. (LIVE workshop on July 18) Step #2: Find Your Flow → Develop a process for quickly getting "in the zone" so you can go from random acts of busywork to consistent daily progress. (LIVE workshop on Aug 1) Step #3: Dive into Deep Work → Level up your focus skills so you can be as productive as possible during the time you have available. (LIVE workshop on Aug 15) If distractions and competing priorities are constantly sidetracking you from meaningful work, it’s time to change things up. The Do Not Disturb Focus Booster is a 3-part live online workshop that will help you tap into peak productivity so you can finish what you start instead of stalling out. 👉 [Become an Accelerator member]( and get instant access to the growing community, accountability, and all the Focus Booster content.** (FYI: As a member, you’ll also get access to our entire course library and resource vault, including the advanced Time Management masterclass, our Margin Course, and our complete library of tools, templates, and cheat sheets.) Sign up now to get instant access: [thefocuscourse.com/accelerator]( [JOIN NOW »]( If the answer isn't a definite yes then it should be a no.  — Greg McKeown Urgency Addiction in a Nutshell(Originally written for [The Focus Course]( In his book, [First Things First]( Stephen Covey defines Urgency Addiction as this: "Urgency addiction is a self-destructive behavior that temporarily fills the void created by unmet needs. And instead of meeting these needs, the tools and approaches of time management often feed the addiction. They keep us focused on daily prioritization of the urgent. […] "It’s important to realize that urgency itself is not the problem. The problem is that when urgency is the dominant factor in our lives, importance isn’t." When something is urgent, it requires your immediate action and/or attention. However, an urgent matter is rarely universally urgent. If my son falls down and breaks his arm, that’s an urgent situation and I’m going to drop everything to take him to the emergency room. However, that doesn’t mean my co-workers should drop everything they are doing, nor should my neighbors, or even my family members who live hundreds of miles away. Urgency can change based on the time of day. If there is a meeting I have to lead in two weeks, it’s not an urgent matter that I prepare for today. However, if it’s the night before the meeting and I still have not prepared, then it has become urgent that I do so. When something is urgent to us, we often project our sense of urgency onto others — oftentimes causing chaos and frustration where none is needed. For example, if I was racing to the emergency room with my son and his broken arm, you can imagine how frustrated I would be with all the cars that are driving the speed limit and obeying the traffic laws. I want them to speed up and to get out of my way. Don’t they know I’m in a hurry?! That which is urgent often finds us. It seeks us out and screams for our attention. That which is essential is usually hiding. It must be found, defined, and then given the attention it deserves. When something is essential, it is absolutely necessary. Essential is the very definition of what’s truly important. An essential task is something that’s required to keep forward progress with our goals and projects. Our daily habits, schedules, and action plans should all be comprised of "essential" activities. Why waste our time doing anything else? Urgent vs Essential Urgent is relative; essential is absolute. Urgency is usually defined by external factors. Essentialness is fundamentally important to a project or goal, regardless of external factors. A task or a situation can be urgent without being essential. Sometimes we have strong emotions surrounding a task or a situation, and thus we feel a sense of urgency to complete it. But urgency (real or perceived) does not define what is essential. However, there are times when a task or situation is essential and also urgent — a pressing deadline for getting our book to the printers, for example. Urgent in and of itself is not bad. But it’s important to know that sometimes things are urgent — or simply seem urgent — even though they’re not essential. Moreover, something that is urgent to another person is not necessarily urgent to us, which is why it’s important for us to know what the essentials are in our own life. What things among our tasks and schedules and daily habits are essential? When we have a clear understanding of what our essential activities and tasks are, then we have clarity on what urgent matters we should give our attention to and which ones we should ignore. Essential Work Can Be Mundane Work One reason we love to give our energy and attention to doing what is urgent is because it feels exciting. There is a natural momentum and adrenaline that accompanies urgent things. Contrast that against doing what is essential. Suppose you are writing a book. The essential work is that you must put words down on paper. And yet, that is so often the very task we neglect because it’s difficult, boring, tedious, or mundane. We instead let our days get filled with many other more pressing ("urgent") matters, and never get to the foundational and important work of writing. We so easily give up the essential for the urgent because the former seems boring or difficult in the moment, and the latter is exciting. Yet so often that which is urgent is not synonymous with that which is most important, which is why letting our lives be taken over by what is only urgent is to live like a child. It is the professional who knows not only what she must do, but also has the fortitude to show up and do the essential work every day. What’s the remedy to Urgency Addiction? In the moment, it can be so hard to dare to choose what is essential over what is urgent (but not essential). Part of the reason this can be so hard is because we don't know what is essential to us, nor do we know where our time is going. In short, we have no framework to even decipher if something is non-essential even though it seems to be urgent. Which is why overcoming Urgency Addiction starts with this: - Decide what’s important, - Discover how your time is being spent, - Budget your hours, - Follow through. What will we say "no" to? Hopefully we will say no to everything that is not important and non-essential. Surely there are enough important things to do in a day that we don't need to fill our time with anything less. In short, simply walking out the lifestyle practices you came up with during [Focus Academy]( will put you on the path to kicking urgency addiction. * * * (Feeling brave? [Take our Urgency Addiction Quiz]( and see how you score.) Upcoming Accelerator Membership Events - LIVE Workshop: How to Manage & Remove Distractions (July 18) - New Accelerator Member Welcome Call (July 20) - LIVE Workshop: How to Find Your Flow (Aug 1) - Weekly Focus Hour, Tuesday’s @ 3pm EDT When you're ready... An all-access pass to every single course and tool in our library, plus a community to help you get clear, take action, and keep going. ✓ Unlimited access to every on-demand course in our library ✓ Instant access to all the tools, workflows, and resources in our vault ✓ Monthly office hours and Q&A with our team ✓ Gain accountability and breakthrough with the community You'll also get access to our complete library of templates for time management (including the brand-new 2023 Digital Planner). [Join Accelerator and get instant access to everything]( Noteworthy Reading For more on the topic of overcoming urgency, dive into the articles below! - [Where have you created false urgency?]( - [The Basecamp Way to Work: Workshop Retrospective]( - [Overcoming Distractions and Interruptions]( - [Creating Blocks of Time for the Important Things]( So why is it so hard in the moment to dare to choose what is essential over what is nonessential? One simple answer is we are unclear about what is essential.  — Greg McKeown That's it for this month's Focus Digest. As always, I'd love to hear from you if anything stood out from this month's edition. Just hit reply to this email. — Isaac Smith Director of Accelerator [Unsubscribe from Focus Digest](. Or, to unsubscribe from everything, for ever and ever, [here](. Blanc Media, 714 Main St., Grandview, MO 64030, United States