“The Tyranny of the Urgent” was a small pamphlet written by Charles Hummel in 1967. In it, Hummel talks about all the “urgent” things in your life crowding out the “important” things. A current example would be emails and phone calls taking away from quality time with your family because the emails and phone calls are “in your face” and needing to be accomplished right now, while family bonding is something that is important to you, but is not actively vying for your attention.
It can similarly be applied in an office setting. Distractions from coworkers, phone calls, and unnecessary or extraneous paperwork could all be examples of ways that urgent things crowd out important things, i.e. actually getting some work done. It can make your workers feel frustrated because they feel like they are constantly busy, but not actually getting much accomplished. If you, as a manager, can find a way to cut down on some of the urgent things that your employees encounter then you free them up to do the important work. Not all urgent matters can be cut out–you still have to take phone calls and paperwork still has to be done. However, one way you can cut down on urgent crowding out the important is through the use of sound masking to decrease conversational distraction. According to an American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) study, workers in offices with even small acoustic treatments:
- Were 48% more focused on their work
- 51% less distracted, resulting in
- 10% fewer errors and a
- 27% decrease in worker stress
By using sound masking effectively, you can filter out the urgent things that are taking away from the important task of working and finishing projects. Fight the tyranny of the urgent with sound masking!