An excerpt from NOMERGENCY: Reclaiming Focus and Calm from False Urgency.

Your heart plummets.

It’s 4:55 p.m., five minutes until freedom, five minutes until you’re finally out the door to go and try that restaurant your friends have been raving about for months. But you’ve already caught a glimpse of the new e-mail from your boss, and it cannot be unseen.

The subject line reads: “Take a quick look?”

Your stomach twists.

Maybe I …

Read more…

The urgency epidemic

I was in my office at 8 p.m. about a year ago. My back was hunched, phone in one hand and papers in the other, with twenty open tabs glaring at me from two adjacent monitors. I heard a nearby door shut and wondered, “Why is my colleague leaving so late?” Then it hit me: Have I thought of leaving yet?

If you asked me what I was doing …

Read more…