Is Hurry Sickness making you sick?
What Is Hurry Sickness?
Do you find yourself multitasking to the point of forgetting one of the tasks? Do you fill every minute of downtime with a chore or task from your endless to-do list? Do you feel a continual sense of urgency and that you’re always behind? Then you might suffer from hurry sickness. Hurry sickness was coined by 2 cardiologists, Drs. Friedman and Rosenman in the 1970s after noticing that the majority of their patients suffered from a harrying sense of time urgency. They defined hurry sickness as "a continuous struggle and unremitting attempt to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time."
What Are The Signs of Hurry Sickness?
People with hurry sickness think fast, talk fast and act fast. We multitask and rush against the clock, feeling a constant pressure to get things done and a perpetual momentum to keep moving forward, even though we’ve already accomplished a ton!
What Causes Hurry Sickness?
This time urgency is partly related to the ever increasing technology in our lives designed to make life easier. But do they really? Our laptops and smartphones just allow us to keep working in all settings and situations causing us to never officially stop working and have actual “down time”.
How Does Hurry Sickness Affect our Health?
Working at breakneck speed for extended periods of time does not enhance productivity, it reduces it. Hurry sickness increases your body's output of the stress hormone cortisol and is ultimately damaging to the body. It puts us into overdrive, kicking in our “fight or flight” survival mode. We become more short tempered, irritable and have trouble relaxing to fall asleep. It takes us out of our parasympathetic mode where we rest, repair, digest and actively recover. Living at this pace is just not sustainable physically, mentally or emotionally. We end up frustrated, exhausted and at our breaking point!
So How Do You Fix It?
Well first of all, we need to slow the **** down!!! Easier said than done, right? But remember that you can work much more efficiently when your mind isn’t racing with 1000 thoughts. Then start by prioritizing tasks and just working on that top priority alone until complete. Make it your goal to work smarter, not harder. And let some of the trivial things go.
Learn to say no to things that don’t bring you joy or excitement but feel like something we “should”do. Your time is precious so choose wisely.
Stop glorifying busyness! We all walk around talking about how busy we are like it’s a badge of honor but really it’s a sign that we have lost sight of what’s important. Let’s shift our goal to being more grounded and present. I bet that email can wait!
Say goodbye to multitasking. When you multitask you actually lose 10 IQ points! Stick with one task to completion. Did you know that the average human’s attention span is 8 seconds, which is less than that of a goldfish who has a 9 second attention span! To avoid distractions try setting a timer to help you stay with one task until that time is up.
Try stepping away for a deep breath or to stretch your legs with a walk outside. Stepping away from your work and changing your environment can help you counteract the need to hurry. Put your phone down during meals and when talking to family. I challenge you to set a time of day when you pull the plug on your laptop or smartphone, stop working for the day and try to be present with your family or friends.
Hurry sickness is very common and it's making us sick. Taking time to “stop and smell the roses” gives you the ability to slow down enough to savor special relationships and the important moments of life, big or small. What are your favorite ways to slow down? Are you ready for a change? I know I am.
If you are interested in learning more about how to slow down you can check out these books:
When Less Becomes More by Emily Ley
In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore
And if you’d like more help with slowing down and to check on your cortisol levels to see how your stress system is handling things, check out our website for more information on how to work with us.
In health,
Dr. Emily