The traffic light system is one that is used by Dr. Darria Long in the emergency room to prioritize patients. The message here is not to treat everything as life-threatening, otherwise your stress hormones rise and your executive functions in your pre-frontal cortex decline, your memory, judgment and impulse control deteriorate and the brain's areas for anger and anxiety are activated.

One of the most common things people treat like an emergency is text messages. I say set aside time in your day to do uninterrupted deep work and also set aside time to deal with text messages. Just don't treat everything as an emergency.