Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 21 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: ASAP is stressful, use it wisely
— From REWORK: Change the way you work forever by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
The post on being conscious about the language we use left me thinking about other words and sayings that have become common—but shouldn’t be.
One of those is ASAP or As Soon As Possible.
ASAP is stressful because it always denotes urgency. ASAP means drop everything and pay attention to this.
I get stressed out—and know a lot of people who do too—when colleagues used ASAP liberally, like salt on their food. That’s why I loved what Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson say about it in their awesome book Rework:
ASAP is poison.
Stop saying ASAP. We get it. It’s implied. Everyone wants things done as soon as they can be done.
When you turn into one of these people who adds ASAP to the end of every request, you’re saying everything is high priority. And when everything is high priority, nothing is. (Funny how everything is a top priority until you actually have to prioritize things.)
ASAP is inflationary. It devalues any request that doesn’t say ASAP. Before you know it, the only way to get anything done is by putting the ASAP sticker on it.
Most things just don’t warrant that kind of hysteria. If a task doesn’t get done this very instant, nobody is going to die. Nobody is going to lose their job. It won’t cost the company a ton of money. What it will do is create artificial stress, which leads to burnout and worse.
So reserve your use of emergency language for true emergencies. The kind where there are direct, measurable consequences to inaction. For everything else, chill out.
What other words or phrases have you come across that you’d like to veto from our language? Let me know in the comments here and I’ll write a post about it!
ACTION
TODAY: The authors are right in saying, “When everything is high priority, nothing is.” Take a moment to prioritize your schedule today and for the rest of the week so that you’re not telling yourself “ASAP” unconsciously and operating under unneeded stress!
FUTURE: Do you know someone who operates in ASAP mode all the time? Grab a cup of coffee with that person, and share your willingness to work as a team, but be candid in mentioning that seeing ASAP so often is very stressful and thus underproductive. Set up a system to work together that will (1) ensure you get the projects on time, and (2) enable you to know when projects are really urgent to devote your whole attention to them. I’ve found that a cup of coffee works wonders for most things: it creates bonds of friendship, better understanding among colleagues, and much willingness to work together (and have coffee again in a future).
Help someone get out of ASAP mode by sharing this post via email, Facebook or Twitter!