Mark every message “urgent” and you teach people to ignore the word.

A label only works if it separates some things from others. Used on everything, urgent stops meaning now and starts meaning nothing, and the person reading it builds the habit of deciding for themselves what matters. The cost arrives later, on the day something genuinely cannot wait and your flag has no credit left.

Keep the word for things that will actually go wrong within hours, and put the real deadline in the message instead. If everything you send feels urgent, the problem is usually the planning rather than the labelling. Notice who in your life has already trained you to ignore them.