The surrounded and self-created pressure of our daily life makes some of us believe that everything is either important or urgent, or both. That there is this sense of mission critical everything for getting things done ASAP because that’s how things roll around here (insert company).
This has been true for years, if not decades, for start-ups as well as big enterprises — to move fast and break things quickly because they have to crush the competition. A first market mover takes it all kinda situation. However, in retrospect most things are neither important or urgent, so stop freaking out.
Stop creating urgency where there is none. Stop creating drama where there is none. Stop freaking your coworkers out with mission critical BS when there is none.
How many people would die if X, Y, Z doesn’t get delivered? If there are any, then that’s truly what we should call mission critical. Otherwise, simply work around the problem, find a solution, then implement it.
Richard Chan 