Think back to different times when you had a sense of urgency? What drove it? What made you work faster, stay up late, get things done, make sure you were doing the important things first? Below are three core factors to create an insane sense of urgency.
First factor: Definiteness of Purpose! (its even fun to say) Something specific that has to get done. Write it down (first step of making it real). Make it sing when you say it!
Second factor: Deadline Driven! Remember when you were a kid and you knew how many days until Christmas, your birthday or summer vacation? Put a date on it. Work backwards from that date. Every day look at that count down and see how many days you have left. Communicate it with your team, your company, the world. Install a countdown app on your phone and look at how many days you have left every time you turn on your phone.
Third factor: Align to a Greater Cause! I’d advocate that your definiteness of purpose is something a little bigger than eat breakfast or get the TPS report done. Make it worthy, critical, even world changing!
That’s the basic formula for developing your sense of urgency. And all you have to do is drive the heck out of it like it was on fire! Urgency!