⏸️ June: It Can Wait…

What if you didn’t need to do it now (or at all)?

Jun 01, 2025

I often act like things are on fire when they’re not. 🔥

Urgency is my default mode. When new tasks or information crop up, I feel the urge to act on them now. Whether that’s to simply prevent it hitting my to-do list in the first place (if I just quickly respond to this email, I won’t need to add a task) or because something has been asked of me and I don’t want to let the person down (I end up respecting their time more than my own and prioritising their needs over mine).

This month, we dial back the urgency. Let’s give ourselves permission to not do the thing, at least not right now.

Because being honest…

Not everything is a fire.

Not even most things.

The myth of urgency

If you’ve ever found yourself completing a task or reading a message just to get rid of the little red dot haunting your soul, you are not alone. Our brains have been trained like excitable puppies to react to pings, notifications, and anything that vaguely resembles urgency.

And yes, putting off replying to a message can feel weirdly rebellious - even if your logical brain knows it’s about as urgent as fluffing a pillow.

But reacting to everything as if it’s a crisis mistakes activity for progress. Speed for priority. The dopamine of “just one more thing” before we log off. Until one thing becomes five more things. And then it's bedtime, and your brain is still sprinting. 😵‍💫

Part of this comes from a cognitive bias known as the Mere Urgency Effect: our brains instinctively prioritize tasks that feel urgent over those that are actually important. Even when the urgent tasks are low-value, ticking them off gives us a temporary hit of relief and accomplishment. But long term? It pulls us away from the stuff that really matters.

Delay isn’t failure, it’s strategy.

We delay things all the time. The problem is, we do it without meaningful intention. Tasks roll over, emails get marked unread for the sixth time, and the mental weight builds.

But intentional delay is a different game entirely. When you decide that something can wait, you reclaim your energy and focus for what matters most right now, knowing that everything will get handled in due course.

You also open the door to clarity. Some tasks, when given a little breathing room, solve themselves. (Is there literally anything better than coming back to work after vacation to see that someone already handled the fire you were going to have to put out?!) 😌

Other things? Given a dose of perspective, you can realize they never mattered in the first place.

How to delay without avoiding

There’s a real difference between procrastination and strategic delay. One comes with guilt and avoidance. The other makes space to do the right thing at the right time (instead of the most anxiety-inducing thing immediately).

Not sure which one you’re doing? Here are a few helpful questions:

Would doing this later actually make it easier, clearer, or better?
Am I pausing because I need more time, or because I’m scared to start?
Is there a better time in the future to revisit this?

If the answers feel squishy or non-existent, it might be worth digging into why. Some tasks need to be broken down. Others need to be downgraded from “must do” to “nice idea I had once.” And that’s okay.

When ‘Later’ Feels Impossible

Your to-do list should be a tool, not a time bomb of anxiety and “should-dos”. And remember (for the most part), you are in control of that. How you frame tasks in your own to-do list can have a significant impact on your perceived pressure.

However, sometimes pressure comes from another source. I can hear some of you screaming, “That’s nice, Naomi, but I don’t have the luxury of managing my to-do list.”

You might have a manager who keeps throwing last-minute tasks at you, a workload that’s already unreasonable, and no real say in what makes it onto your plate.

You’re not wrong, that’s stressful and it sucks. But this is where transparency becomes your ally. Someone commented on a YouTube video of ours recently, saying they were drowning in tasks and couldn’t push anything off without consequences from their boss. If that’s your situation too, consider this: delaying doesn’t have to be a solo decision. It can also be a conversation.

When someone adds a task to your plate, especially urgently, try this:

Share your current top priorities transparently.
Ask which existing item can be deprioritised to make room.
Let your manager (or stakeholder) take an active role in adjusting expectations.

You’re not saying no. You’re saying: Help me make this work.

It’s a small shift, but an important one. You stop silently absorbing the pressure and instead start managing up with clarity. And that, too, is a form of healthy, intentional delay.

So push pause on the things that don’t matter this month. If you can, gift yourself a little freedom to work on the most important (and oftentimes fulfilling) things instead.

📌 Todoist Tip: Make ‘Later’ a real place

If you don’t already have a Later List in Todoist, now’s the time.

Create a project or label for “Later” or “Someday”
When something interesting but non-urgent shows up, toss it in there
No due dates and absolutely no pressure. Just a holding pen for things that future you might care about

Other power moves:

Use “no due date”: Stop manufacturing urgency where none exists.
Try adding “every!” to recurring tasks: Adding that little exclamation point means these will reappear after you complete them, not just because the calendar said so.

"Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do." — Steve Jobs

📌 Gonçalo’s Productivity Method

In this short video, Todoist CTO Gonçalo shares his personal productivity method, which he calls P1234.

Sounds like the serial code for your microwave, but it’s actually an ingenious way of honing your focus each day.

It also defends against false urgency when you can only have a single priority one task. And the color coordination is oddly satisfying. 🤤 You’ll have to watch the video to see what I mean.

We’re halfway through 2025. Sorry to break it to you. 😅

Now’s a great time to ignore all the fluff and nonsense fighting for our attention and laser focus on the things that make the most impact.

See you in July!

Naomi (real human 🙋‍♀️) and the Todoist team