Why Does Everything Feel So Urgent in a Small Business?

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You’re having to manage a lot when you’re running a business; you’re more than familiar with all of this already if you’re personally running one.

You’re having to do what you can to get it out of debt, you have the marketing aspect, there’s always deadlines, all day and every day, customer service, getting back to suppliers, team members, well, you name it.

It can pretty much feel like living inside one long notification sound. There’s always email, texts, DMs, voicemails, missed calls, “quick question” messages that aren’t quick, well, all of that. 

There’s all of that to manage. A lot of it feels urgent. Sometimes it is, sometimes it’s not, but it often feels urgent though!

Even a question about a receipt starts feeling like it has the same priority as payroll, a broken website link, and a customer who’s actually ready to buy today.

When the day feels like a constant fire drill, the knee-jerk solution is hiring. More staff, more coverage, more people to catch things. It’s the same for technology, even AI; all it means is having to do more, more expectations, more things to get done, not less. 

With small businesses there’s prioritization problems, boundary problems, and process problems, hiring more people or even investing more into AI isn’t going to be an immediate fix for all this stuff either.

So, what exactly is though?

Why Does Everything Start Feeling Urgent in the First Place?

Well, this usually happens when work is coming in faster than it’s getting sorted. That’s it.

No, really, it’s surprisingly all that simple. So, with all of this, it means that requests pile up, decisions pile up, tiny tasks pile up, and then the brain starts scanning everything like it’s a threat, because it can’t tell what matters and what’s just noise.

Well, it’s all of that, but also, a huge part of it is context switching. But in what way?

Well, maybe one minute it’s a customer question, then it’s a supplier issue, then it’s a social comment, then it’s a staff schedule, then it’s an invoice, then it’s someone asking for the logo file again, because of course they are. And because everything’s mixed together, the brain treats everything like it might be important, because what if it is, right?

So the day becomes reactive instead of planned. Does any of this make sense? Does it seem familiar at all?

Saying Yes too Much is a Problem

Also, a lot of small business owners and small teams have this habit of saying yes in real time, because it feels helpful and fast.

Actually, it’s not even just owners; it’s just people with regular jobs, too. So then there’s this new layer, and so the problem is that real-time yes’s create delayed consequences.

Think of it this way: a quick yes becomes a task, the task becomes a deadline, the deadline becomes pressure, and then the week feels like it’s chasing you.

Stop Managing the Business in Your Head

Some people operate this way, doing it all in their head.

That’s why so many small businesses run on mental sticky notes. Maybe someone remembers the thing. Someone plans to do the thing. Someone is “going to get to it.” Then the day happens, and the thing becomes a surprise later, which is always fun.

While this might sound like super generic advice, it can actually help to just get tasks out of your brain, well, everyone's brain, and into a system. That can actually help with this “this and that need to be done ASAP” sort of thing. 

Of course, it all depends on the business you’re running and the particular type of system, like if you’re overseeing creators, then you’ll need some sort of creator management platform to help that, but the same can be said for other businesses and industries too. But as consolation at least can help with all of this, though, as it makes it all a lot cleaner. 

It’s Time to Set Some Rules

Okay, this sounds obvious, but it’s one of those things that changes the whole mood of the business.

Not everything gets to be urgent, even if someone else is acting like it’s urgent. So, here’s one thing you need to do: a small business needs a basic priority filter.

Anything tied to revenue today or tomorrow, anything tied to safety, anything tied to payroll, anything tied to a customer who’s already paid, those get attention fast. 

And for everything else? Well, it gets queued; it’s that plain and simple here.