{"id":23038,"date":"2026-06-10T00:28:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T00:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/?p=23038"},"modified":"2026-06-10T00:28:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T00:28:40","slug":"gaurang-das-how-high-priority-asap-and-urgent-have-become-workplace-diseases-mindfulness-coach-and-iitian-gaurang-das-shares-why-fake-urgency-is-destroying-corporate-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/?p=23038","title":{"rendered":"Gaurang Das: How &#8216;high priority&#8217;, &#8216;ASAP,&#8217; and &#8216;urgent&#8217; have become workplace diseases: Mindfulness coach and IITian Gaurang Das shares why &#8216;fake urgency&#8217; is destroying corporate culture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-131610319,imgsize-1835245,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/131610319.jpg\" alt=\"How 'high priority', 'ASAP,' and 'urgent' have become workplace diseases: Mindfulness coach and IITian Gaurang Das shares why 'fake urgency' is destroying corporate culture\" title=\"The modern workplace suffers from a &quot;cult of false urgency,&quot; where everything is labeled &quot;urgent&quot; or &quot;ASAP,&quot; blurring the lines between what's truly important and what's not. This constant state of perceived crisis hinders effectiveness, as decisions made in haste often create more problems.\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"The modern workplace suffers from a &quot;cult of false urgency,&quot; where everything is labeled &quot;urgent&quot; or &quot;ASAP,&quot; blurring the lines between what's truly important and what's not. This constant state of perceived crisis hinders effectiveness, as decisions made in haste often create more problems.\">The modern workplace suffers from a &#8220;cult of false urgency,&#8221; where everything is labeled &#8220;urgent&#8221; or &#8220;ASAP,&#8221; blurring the lines between what&#8217;s truly important and what&#8217;s not. This constant state of perceived crisis hinders effectiveness, as decisions made in haste often create more problems.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Pause for a second and think back over your last working week. How many things were labelled &#8220;urgent&#8221; or \u2018priority\u2019? How many messages landed with a red flag, a bold &#8220;ASAP,&#8221; or an email subject line in full caps demanding your attention right now?<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"2\"\/>If you&#8217;re like most people, the honest answer is- \u2018too many\u2019 to count. <!-- -->Somewhere along the way, the modern workplace has developed a peculiar addiction, a nagging that everything is on fire, all the time, and that the fastest response is always the best one.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>The trouble is that living in a permanent state of emergency doesn&#8217;t make us more effective.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"8\"\/>Recently, Gaurang Das, a monk and an IIT Bombay graduate, and a leadership-and-mindfulness coach, shed light on this through his LinkedIn post.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/> <\/p>\n<div data-pos=\"0\" class=\"id-r-component iIpbx undefined  &#10;        \">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"How 'high priority', 'ASAP,' and 'urgent' have become workplace diseases Mindfulness coach and IITian Gaurang Das shares why 'fake urgency' is destroying corporate culture\" msid=\"131610334\" width=\"\" title=\"IITian and Midfulness coach Gaurang Das (Photo: gaurangadas.com)\" placeholdersrc=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/83033472.cms\" imgsize=\"\" resizemode=\"4\" offsetvertical=\"0\" placeholdermsid=\"47529300\" type=\"thumb\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/msid-131610334\/how-high-priority-asap-and-urgent-have-become-workplace-diseases-mindfulness-coach-and-iitian-gaurang-das-shares-why-fake-urgency-is-destroying-corporate-culture.jpg\" data-api-prerender=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p>IITian and Midfulness coach Gaurang Das (Photo: gaurangadas.com)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"15\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>How work at offices has become a cult of false urgency at work<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>Gauranga Das wrote in his post, how &#8220;urgent,&#8221; &#8220;high priority&#8221; and &#8220;ASAP&#8221; have quietly become the default language of work. The real problem, he said, is that many workplaces have forgotten the difference between what&#8217;s urgent and what&#8217;s actually important. When everything is treated as a crisis, nothing truly is. He put things into perspective, writing, \u201cNot every message is a crisis. Not every deadline is a disaster. And not every quick decision is a good decision.\u201d<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>He relates it to a message from the Bhagavad Gita<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>To make his point, Das explained the same, taking an example from the Bhagavad Gita. He wrote, \u201cEven on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Krishna did not ask Arjuna to act impulsively. He first asked him to pause, understand, and see the situation clearly.\u201d<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"23\"\/>Even in the most high-pressure moment imaginable, the guidance was not to react faster, but to steady the mind and think first.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"26\"\/>Read post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/gaurangadasofficial_careeradvice-bhagavadgitalessons-share-7467150609285246976-JFXT\/?utm_source=social_share_send&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop_web&amp;rcm=ACoAAAcAlrgBqVfNUFRoT0strX0ERNbEuxWsR0M\" rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" target=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">here<\/a>.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"30\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Why does a calm mind make better decisions<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>Das&#8217;s core message is conveyed through one line in his post. &#8220;A calm mind solves problems. But a rushed mind creates new ones.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"33\"\/>Decisions made in a panic do not always produce good or expected results, creating new problems that demand even more urgent fixing later.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"35\"\/>A calmer mind, on the contrary, can measure the options, pick and choose what genuinely matters, and more often than not arrive at the better solution. Slowing down, paradoxically, can turn out to be the faster route.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"37\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/etimes\/work-career\/how-high-priority-asap-and-urgent-have-become-workplace-diseases-mindfulness-coach-and-iitian-gaurang-das-shares-why-fake-urgency-is-destroying-corporate-culture\/articleshow\/131610319.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The modern workplace suffers from a &#8220;cult of false urgency,&#8221; where everything is labeled &#8220;urgent&#8221; or &#8220;ASAP,&#8221; blurring the lines between what&#8217;s truly important and what&#8217;s not. This constant state of perceived crisis hinders effectiveness, as decisions made in haste often create more problems. Pause for a second and think back over your last working&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-style"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}