When Everything Feels Urgent—But You Still Need to Think

It started at 6:17 a.m. The first text buzzed through my phone while I was brushing my teeth. A line cook had called out. By 6:45, I had three texts, a missed call, and an email with the subject line: "We Need To Talk ASAP." No context. Just that one ominous sentence hanging in the inbox like a storm cloud. Then the coffee machine jammed.

Welcome to a typical Tuesday in the life of a business owner, operator, or leader. When everything—and I mean everything—feels urgent.

Your brain goes into firefighting mode. Your breath shortens. You get that tight feeling behind your eyes like a tension headache waiting to explode. You tell yourself you don’t have time to think. You have to act. Now.

But here’s the truth no one tells you in “leadership school:” When everything feels urgent, thinking is exactly what you need most.

Urgency Hijacks the Brain

Let’s talk neuroscience for a moment. When our brain perceives a threat—whether it's a missed deadline, an angry guest, or a surprise staff resignation—our amygdala lights up like a Vegas marquee. We enter fight, flight, or freeze. Logic shuts down. Creativity? Gone. Perspective? Not a chance.

Urgency distorts time and perception. That email feels like it must be answered this second or the world might end. That schedule change feels like a five-alarm fire. But the real emergency? The one we don't notice… It's our brain’s inability to differentiate between true urgency and manufactured urgency.

And leaders? We're not immune. In fact, we're often the worst offenders.

The Cost of Constant Reactivity

I once worked with a restaurant GM who prided herself on being "always available." She answered every call, jumped into every issue, and ran her shifts like a SWAT team operation. But over time, her staff stopped thinking. They waited for her to fix things. They stopped owning problems, because she always swooped in.

She was burnt out, overwhelmed, and stuck in what I call the "Urgency Trap": Everything feels important. Nothing gets prioritized. No time to plan. No time to lead.

Here’s what it cost her:

• High turnover

• Flatlined sales

• Missed growth opportunities

• A reputation as a micromanager

And yet, she was working 70 hours a week. She was “busy”—but she wasn’t effective.

You don’t rise above chaos by becoming part of it. You rise above by learning to pause in the middle of the noise.

The Power of the Pause

Thinking in the face of urgency is not natural. It’s a practiced discipline.

I had a mentor who used to say, "When in doubt, get still." At first, I thought he was being overly Zen. But then I tried it. The next time I got that adrenaline spike—"You have to call this client back right now or we’ll lose the deal!"—I took 90 seconds. Just 90 seconds to close my eyes, breathe deeply, and ask myself:

What is actually being asked of me? Is this urgent or just loud? What outcome do I want here?

That pause? It changed everything. I made a better call. I communicated more clearly. I solved the problem faster because I chose how to respond instead of reacting.

Tools to Break the Cycle

If your days feel like a blur of fires and fix-its, you need more than a motivational quote. You need tools. Repeatable, usable, scalable tools.

Here are a few of my go-to tactics for slowing down in the storm:

1. The Triage List

When everything feels important, write it down. All of it. Then mark each item:

• Critical: Needs to be handled today or serious consequences follow.

• Important: Needs attention soon but won’t implode in 24 hours.

• Noise: Just loud, not truly urgent or important.

Then? Do the critical. Schedule the important. Delete or delegate the noise.  This is a smaller version of Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix:

• Quadrant I – Urgent & Important – Do

• Quadrant II – Not Urgent but Important – Plan

• Quadrant III – Urgent but Not Important – Delegate

• Quadrant IV – Not Urgent & Not Important – Eliminate

The goal is to spend as much time as possible in Quadrant II – This is where you are working on your business, not in your business.

2. The Two-Minute Rule

If something takes less than two minutes, do it. But beware—this rule is not an excuse to avoid deep work. It’s a way to knock out clutter strategically, not compulsively (and gives you some quick, easy wins on your daily or weekly list).

3. Strategic White Space

Block 30-60 minutes each day for actual thinking. No meetings. No emails. No phone. Just time to reflect, plan, and be proactive. Defend this time like your business depends on it—because it does.

4. The Right Question

When a team member brings you a fire, ask them a question in return: "What do you think we should do?" Teach your team to pause, assess, and propose. It builds their confidence and gives you breathing room, not to mention, they probably have a solution in mind and are simply seeking your approval.

5. Post-Game Reviews

After a chaotic day, review it. What came up that truly mattered? What was just noise? What patterns are emerging? Awareness builds resilience.

A Story from the Eye of the Storm

Years ago, I consulted for a brewery that had just opened their second location. The owners were overwhelmed. Vendors weren’t delivering on time. Staff was no-showing. Reviews were inconsistent. And their POS system crashed three days in a row.

They called an emergency meeting.

Everyone came in hot. Frustration was thick in the air. People talked over each other. One of the owners banged the table and shouted, "We can’t keep operating like this!"

I asked for ten minutes.

We all took out notebooks. I gave them three questions:

1. What is actually on fire?

2. What are we reacting to that could wait?

3. What does success look like by the end of the week?

The room went quiet.

What emerged from that silence was a plan. One of the managers took over vendor relations. Another focused purely on training. A third built a review-response protocol. In 30 minutes, we went from chaos to clarity.

They didn’t fix everything that day. But they took back control.

Leadership Is What Happens Between the Fires

Anyone can react to a crisis. True leaders shape the system that prevents the next one.  The aftermath of a crisis or breakdown is not the place to point fingers and place or avoid blame – it’s the genesis of that system.  Pulling the plan together with the input of everyone who was involved.

You can’t lead if you can’t think. You can’t think if you’re always reacting. And you can’t stop reacting until you reclaim space to pause.

I want to challenge you: the next time everything feels urgent, ask yourself one question: What would a calm, confident leader do right now?

Then do that.

That’s the job. Not to be the fastest, loudest, or busiest person in the room. But to be the clearest.  You might not have all the answers, but a leader must be skilled at asking the best, most impactful questions.

Be the one who slows down, looks around, and sees through the noise.  Be Neo in the Matrix.  Choose to be the One and act like it

That’s where leadership lives: not in the urgency, but in the clarity you choose despite it.

Final Thought: 

Urgency is loud. Leadership is quiet. Choose quiet.

Then act with intention—and watch your team do the same.