‘Urgency culture’ might lead you to burnout. How can you combat it?

In an increasingly fast-paced and hyperconnected world that rewards immediacy, urgency culture blurs the line between what is truly important and what is not.

At work, this could involve handling frequent last-minute requests, unrealistic deadlines or workload, and the expectation to be reachable even after hours.   

In personal life, manifestations of urgency culture include overextending in relationships, frequently checking social media updates out of fear of missing out, and responding immediately to calls and texts, even when it’s inconvenient. 

The constant rush and the unspoken expectation to always be “on” professionally and personally can create a state of heightened alertness. This hypervigilance significantly increases stress and anxiety, says Joel Frank, a Los Angeles-based clinical psychologist and owner of Duality Psychological Services.

According to the American Psychological Association’s Stress in America 2023 report, nearly a quarter of adults report feeling high levels of stress post-pandemic, marking a 19 percent increase since 2019. Younger adults are hit worse, with almost half of Gen Z and more than a third of millennials reporting feeling anxious or stressed all or most of the time. 

“Anxiety, in turn, feeds into the urgency, creating a cycle where each reinforces the other,” Frank says.  

The ripple effects of being ‘always on’

Being part of the “always on” culture often necessitates multitasking. However, research shows the human brain lacks the neurocognitive architecture to perform two or more tasks simultaneously. So, every time we multitask, it actually slows the brain down and may reduce productivity by up to 40 percent.

Besides, “the attraction to distraction that drives most multitasking can be hard to shut off,” says Friederike Fabritius, neuroscientist and author of The Brain-Friendly Workplace. “As a result, you may find it difficult to focus even when you aren’t multitasking.” 

Meanwhile, constant overstimulation—a significant contributor to urgency culture—desensitizes your dopamine system. In short, the more overstimulated you are, the less joy you can feel, says Fabritius.  

It also impedes reflective thinking. When the brain is overwhelmed by the constant need to process information and make decisions quickly, it often resorts to shallow thinking. This compromises your ability to engage in deep work, which requires long bouts of distraction-free concentration, says Frank.

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Over time, urgency culture can also be detrimental to physical health. A false sense of urgency tricks the body into reacting as if it’s in a threatening situation, activating the “fight-or-flight” response. Your breathing becomes faster, your blood pressure and heart rate go up, and you lose the ability to regulate emotions, says David Rabin, a neuroscientist and cofounder of the San Francisco-based health tech company Apollo Neuro. 

According to Rabin, an overactive fight-or-flight response contributes to hypertension, sleep deprivation, high cholesterol, and inflammatory disorders.   

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Counteracting urgency culture

To avoid the urgency trap, Frank recommends pausing for a few moments before leaping into action every time something comes up. “It allows you to step back and assess whether this demand for your attention aligns with your priorities,” he says.  

Setting clear expectations in personal and professional relationships can also help plan, prioritize, and problem-solve without inducing false urgency, says Peter Economou, director of the Behavioral Health and Sport Psychology program at Rutgers University and author of the Mindfulness Workbook for Beginners. 

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The best thing you can do to cope with urgency culture is to regularly engage in activities that remind you there is no rush, says Rabin.

He recommends “the four practices of control” to calm and recenter whenever you feel rushed, overwhelmed, or overstimulated—intentional breathing, listening, movement, and touch. 

Establishing clear boundaries, including digital ones, is also crucial to avoid false urgency resulting from unreasonable expectations, overcommitting, and multitasking. 

Prioritizing single-tasking whenever possible is another effective strategy for achieving clear focus and improved productivity. 

If you find it challenging to work on a single task to completion, Fabritius suggests using time blocks to focus exclusively on one task for a specific period before moving to the next. “The satisfaction of completing each time block should give you a dose of dopamine, as will the prospect of facing the next ‘new’ task,” she says. 

Ida Taghavi, a clinical psychologist with Williamsburg Therapy Group in New York, recommends practicing mindfulness to increase awareness, emotional regulation, and stress tolerance.

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Mindfulness is nonjudgmental awareness and acceptance of present experiences. “It offers an opportunity to reflect upon and choose responses that we find more effective and aligned with our intentions and values,” she says. 

Mindfulness creates a buffer between a stimulus, such as a thought, emotion, or physical sensation, and our response to it. “This space disrupts habitual reactions that can be destructive, such as emotional dysregulation or avoidance, compulsive behaviors, or negative thinking patterns,” says Taghavi. 

In addition, “observing inner experiences without resistance makes room for them to inevitably pass, which can regulate emotions and increase tolerance for distress,” says Taghavi.