What Is An "Emergency"?

Building Balance

Jan 16

Read time: 4 minutes

In today's issue, I'm going to share a 3-question process to help you define construction work "emergencies".

If you can follow this process, you're much less likely to burn out and much more likely to have work/life balance.

Most people in construction don't have a solid process for defining an "emergency", so they are constantly pushing themselves past their limits.

In early 2022, I took a day off to spend with my wife.

I had one problem job down to the last couple of days onsite, but I wanted to slip out for a day anyway.

It didn't work.

By 9 am, I had an email from the client about manpower.

Only addressed to me.

I looked at it and didn't know what to do.

One the one hand:

I had the day off
And work/life balance is important to me

On the other hand:

This was an important client
And work/life balance doesn't mean ignoring responsibilities

I was frustrated, but I asked my wife if it was okay if I worked for a little.

She gave me some amazing advice. She said:

"Work/life balance means defining what's an 'emergency'. If this is really an emergency, then yes of course, do what you need to do."

I decided this was DEFINITELY an emergency.

So I made some phone calls, sent a couple of emails, and still had enough time to spend the day with my wife.

But this story isn't about executing on a day off.

It's about the advice my wife gave me:

"Work/life balance means defining what's an emergency."

For 6 years, I treated every:

email
phone call
text
bid
order

like an emergency.

Whether it was 5 am, 10 am, 2 pm, or 8 pm, all I thought was:

"I need to respond to this as fast as possible."

And I was burned out.

So from that day forward, I changed how I field requests.

Because I realized, you can overcome the challenge of work/life balance by building a better system for what you consider an "emergency".

Here is the 3-question process I follow:

Question #1: Does this sound like an emergency?

The first thing I do is check the email/phone call/etc. for tone.

If it doesn't sound like an emergency?

Then I close my phone or computer and wait to field the request until I'm back in the office.

If it does sound like an emergency?

Then I move on to question #2.

Question #2: Is this emergency justifiable?

This is the most common type of "emergency" that project managers and executives end up responding to.

And it's the one that will burn you out the most if you don't have a system for yourself.

It's the phone call or email that sounds like an emergency, but it really isn't.

The other person may be stressed, or they may have made a mistake, or they may want you to fix something for them.

But that doesn't necessarily make it an emergency for you.

So you need to ask yourself:

"Is this emergency justifiable?"

If it's not, then it can wait. You need to control your own time.

If it is, then move on to question #3.

Question #3: Can this wait until tomorrow?

The last and most important question for work/life balance:

"Can this wait until tomorrow?"

Something may be an emergency, but if responding now will not help get resolution, then don't waste your time.