ASAP is poison

Stop saying ASAP. We get it. It's implied. Everyone wants things done as soon

as they can be done.

When you turn into one of these people who adds ASAP to the end of every

request, you're saying everything is high priority. And when everything is high

priority, nothing is. (Funny how everything is a top priority until you actually

have to prioritize things.) ASAP is inflationary. It devalues any request that

doesn't say ASAP. Before you know it, the only way to get anything done is by

putting the ASAP sticker on it.

Most things just don't warrant that kind of hysteria. If a task doesn't get done

this very instant, nobody is going to die. Nobody's going to lose their job. It

won't cost the company a ton of money. What it will do is create artificial stress,

which leads to burnout and worse.

So reserve your use of emergency language for true emergencies. The kind

where there are direct, measurable consequences to inaction. For everything else,

chill ou