You know that feeling when the coffee hasn't even cooled down yet but you’re already vibrating because your to-do list looks like a CVS receipt? I get it. We’ve all been there. You wake up and immediately think, i'm in a hurry to get things done, as if life is a 100-meter dash and the finish line is just... more work.
It’s exhausting.
We live in a culture that treats "busy" like a status symbol, but honestly, most of that rushing is just theater. We’re running in place. According to a 2023 study by the Slack Workforce Index, nearly 43% of desk workers say they feel pressure to appear "productive" during the day, which often leads to what researchers call "performative work." We move fast not because we’re efficient, but because we’re terrified of looking slow.
The Productivity Paradox of Rushing
When you say "i'm in a hurry to get things done," what you’re usually saying is that you’re sacrificing quality for the sake of checking a box. There’s a psychological phenomenon called the Planning Fallacy, first proposed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in 1979. It basically means we are biologically wired to underestimate how long a task will take.
So, you stack your day with twelve tasks. By noon, you’ve only done two.
Then the panic kicks in.
You start "hurrying." You send emails with typos. You skip the deep work. You ignore the nuance in a project because you just need it off your plate. This creates a feedback loop of "hurry sickness," a term coined by cardiologist Meyer Friedman. It’s that chronic feeling of urgency, like you’re constantly behind even when there’s no actual deadline.
It’s actually bad for your brain.
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Neurologically, when we rush, our brains switch from the prefrontal cortex—the part responsible for logic and complex decision-making—to the amygdala. That’s the "fight or flight" center. You aren't "getting things done" anymore; you’re surviving. You can't be creative in survival mode. It’s physically impossible to innovate when your brain thinks a tiger is chasing you, even if that tiger is just a pile of unread Slack messages.
Why Speed Is Often a Lie
Let’s look at the airline industry. It’s a perfect example of why hurrying backfires. If a pilot is in a hurry to get things done and skips a single line of a pre-flight checklist, the consequences are catastrophic. That’s why they have redundant systems. In our own lives, we skip the "pre-flight" checks because we want the dopamine hit of a completed task.
But guess what?
You usually end up doing the work twice.
Real efficiency—the kind practiced by Toyota via the "Lean" methodology—isn't about moving your hands faster. It’s about removing waste. If you’re rushing, you’re likely creating more waste (errors, miscommunications, burnout) than you’re saving in time.
The Cult of the 15-Minute Meeting
We’ve all seen the LinkedIn posts. "I replaced all my hour-long meetings with 15-minute stand-ups!" Cool. But did anything actually get solved?
Sometimes, the most "productive" thing you can do is sit in a room and stare at a wall for twenty minutes until the right idea hits. We’ve demonized downtime. But "i'm in a hurry to get things done" often leads to "shallow work," a concept Cal Newport explores deeply in his research. Shallow work is the stuff that keeps you busy—emails, filing, logistics—but doesn't actually move the needle on your career or your life goals.
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True "deep work" requires a slow ramp-up. You can't hurry into a flow state. It takes about 20 to 25 minutes to fully regain focus after a distraction. If you’re rushing from task to task, you never actually reach that state of peak cognitive performance. You're just skimming the surface of your own potential.
Rethinking Your Relationship with the Clock
So, how do you stop the cycle?
First, stop lying to your calendar. If you think a task takes thirty minutes, give it sixty. This isn't being lazy; it's being a realist. The "i'm in a hurry to get things done" mindset thrives on the friction between your expectations and reality. Remove the friction by padding your time.
Secondly, embrace the "Slow Movement." It started with food in Italy in the 80s, but it applies to work, too. It’s the idea that doing things at the right speed is better than doing them at the maximum speed.
Consider the "Rule of Three." Instead of a list of twenty things, pick three. If you finish them, great, do more. But if you only do those three, you’ve won the day. It shifts the psychology from "I’m behind" to "I’m focused."
- Audit your 'Urgent' list. Most things labeled urgent are actually just someone else's lack of planning.
- Batch the small stuff. Don't check email every ten minutes. Set a timer for 4:00 PM and blitz through it all at once.
- Protect your mornings. The first two hours of the day are your cognitive "golden hours." Don't waste them on being in a hurry to get things done like chores; use them for the hard stuff.
The Biological Cost of Rushing
We have to talk about cortisol. When you live in a state of "hurry," your body is pumping out stress hormones. Over time, this leads to chronic inflammation, sleep disruption, and—ironically—brain fog. The very thing you're trying to achieve (getting things done) becomes harder because your brain is literally marinating in stress chemicals that make you slower.
Expert drummers know this secret: To play fast, you have to practice slowly. If you try to play a complex fill at 180 BPM before you can play it perfectly at 60 BPM, you’ll just learn to play it sloppily. Your life is the same way.
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Moving Forward Without the Panic
The next time you feel that itch—the one that says you need to move faster, talk faster, and work faster—just stop. Take one breath.
Ask yourself: "What happens if this takes an extra hour?"
Usually, the answer is "nothing." The world won't end. Your boss might not even notice. But the quality of your work—and more importantly, the quality of your internal life—will improve dramatically.
Start by identifying your "false emergencies." These are the tasks that feel heavy but actually have no real-world consequences if delayed by 24 hours. Once you clear those out, you’ll find that the things that actually matter don't require a hurry; they require your full, unhurried attention.
Actionable Steps to Break the Hurry Cycle:
- The 10-Minute Buffer: Schedule 10 minutes of "nothing" between every meeting. No phone, no notes. Just transition time.
- Aggressive Prioritization: Use the Eisenhower Matrix to separate what is truly important from what is merely loud.
- Single-Tasking: Close all tabs except the one you are currently working on. Multitasking is a myth that increases error rates by up to 40%.
- Define "Done": Before you start, know exactly what the finish line looks like so you don't keep tinkering out of anxiety.
Stop racing against a clock that isn't even keeping the right time. Your best work happens when you give yourself the permission to take as long as it actually takes.