Slow Down
How Slowing Down Helps You To Speed Up
There is a pattern I have noticed. I have seen this both in my own behaviour and with my clients. It looks something like this: workload starts to accumulate and somewhere along the way, you squeeze the pauses and start to rush. There is so much to be done, you feel there is not enough time to make it happen. This leads to everything feeling rushed, like there is no space for anything. This feeling is often labelled overwhelm.
Overwhelm, unlike what we think, does not come from the sheer amount of work we have to do, but from the way we handle that workload. This means that you can feel overwhelmed with a smaller amount of tasks if you are rushing through it and feeling like you don’t have the time or space for anything. On the other hand, you might sometimes have a very high workload, and feel in control, calm and going at a nice pace.
So how does this work? Let’s explore this, and look into what we can do to stay on top of our work, and tasks without feeling overwhelmed or drained.
Why We Need to Slow Down
When we start to realise quite how much we have to do, that’s when we feel the need to rush. This is a stress response from our amygdala and it doesn’t serve us. Or to be more precise, it doesn’t serve us long term. A small dose of adrenaline and dopamine when you start any task great but in the long run, it drains your mind, body and soul.
Paradoxically, when we feel this rush and stress, the very best thing we can do is to SLOW DOWN. This is highly beneficial for mutliple reasons:
Clarity. Slowing down enables you to think more clearly, which means that the work you do do will be more effective.
Prioritising. When you have a lot to do, or feel overwhelmed by your workload, the best thing you can do is ruthless prioritising. This demands quite a lot of cognitive powers. It you’re feeling rushed and stressed, and lacking that clarity, you cannot prioritise effectively.
Balance. Your nervous system is not meant to be in sympathetic mode all day. If you allow yourself to slow down, you will switch to parasympathetic mode, which is both great for your wellbeing, but also for your productivity (clarity of mind, high conscious, better decision making)
Quality. Ever felt that when you are rushing, you need to do things twice because you are constantly making mistakes? Slowing down helps you to move faster because the quality of your output is so much higher.
Communication. When you are in that fast hectic pace, people around you feel it. This affects all of your relationships: team, friends, partner, family. By slowing down, this has a positive ripple effect on your relationships.
Energy. Let’s face it. Being fast and hectic can feel like a thrill when it is for a few days, but after a couple of weeks, it is totally draining. And a few months/ years of it is a direct road to burnout. Our energy is our greatest resource. Let’s nurture it - slowing down supports high energy levels!
Focus. Thanks to renewed clarity and energy, slowing down enables greater focus. As focus is one of the main assets in everything we do, it is worth remembering that when we are going at 200 miles and hour for too long, our focus is highly affected.
How To Slow Down
It’s all great to know that slowing down is important for our mental health, wellbeing and overall performance. But how do we actively slow down? This might be easy when we are at a beach somewhere, but when we are in our work environment with a never ending todo list - how can we actively slow down? These are some of the methods that have worked best for me:
Brainstorm. First let’s relieve all that is stuck in our mind and put in on paper. That’s the first step of ‘Getting Things Done’ (David Allen): Capture and it works like a charm!
Low Tech. Start the day without any tech for at least one hour (meditation, walking, exercising…) to keep your mind clear from all that noise. Finish the day without any tech either to help you to unwind and process the information of the day, and ensure a good night sleep.
Prioritise. The greatest cause for overwhelm is trying to squeeze too much in one place. On top of the stress that it creates, it can also lower self-esteem and confidence if you are not able to finish everything you had set your mind to. Instead, practise ruthless and clear prioritising. Deciding what is the most important, and urgent, and organising your time and energy around it. Yes, there will be trade offs, and that’s OK, because that’s what prioritising means.
Energy. Keeping your energy a high priority in spite of the workload. This could mean: taking lunch walks, stopping for a brief talk during the day, pausing to enjoy your lunch… Whatever it takes to keep your energy high throughout the day.
Pause. This is the most effective way to slow down. PAUSE. Notice when you are going too fast and your mind is spinning, and stop. Move away from the PC and phone and walk around, look at the view, take some deep breaths. You’d be surprised how much you can get from even a 5min break.
Self-talk. Notice your self-talk. If you keep thinking: ‘I don’t have time. There is no space. There is so much to do. I feel stressed.’ then you will feel all of this. If instead you reframe to: ‘There is always time for what matters most. I create space for what is most important.’ This allows your mind to calm down, and be more focused on the tasks in front of you.
Close boxes. When we are feeling stressed, or rushed, there are often only a handful of activities or tasks taking up all of our mind space. By closing these as soon as possible, this allows more space and breathing. Closing these activities doesn’t necessarily mean finishing them (though that’s ideal), but sometimes you might be waiting for an answer for example so you can create a document/ trello board and write things down to create some form of closure around the activity. This creates a lot of space in the mind.
Create a New Pace
What I am inviting you to do through this article is more than just slowing down when you have a lot on your plate. It’s about defining a new pace of working and living. Slowing down is a superpower. The greatest achievements I have had in my business and life have happened once I slowed down. I could see clearly, think clearly, make fast decisions, and take aligned steps forward.
Being fast is great for a brief period, but mostly it hinders our performance and wellbeing. It’s an illusion: ‘If I go faster & faster, I can get more done.’ The truth is if you go faster and faster, your energy crashes at some point, and you get nothing done, or the quality of the output is very poor.
So how can you sustain this new pace?
Define your rules. What do you want your days and weeks to look like? Do you want to have clear boundaries for the evening and weekends? Decide what would support you best to keep this pace, and then stick to it.
Embrace micro-pauses. Schedule in your calendar pauses throughout the day for mini-morning break, lunch walk, afternoon break… It might feel like a luxury, but it isn’t. Well-timed breaks are one of the absolute best productivity hacks!
Raise awareness. Notice your thoughts, behaviours and patterns and catch yourself when you are going down that rabbit hole always feeling rushed and behind.
Challenge your beliefs. If you have strong beliefs around the importance of always hustling, or why you always need to get more done. Ask yourself: ‘What is this really all about? What’s behind this way of thinking? What am I trying to prove and why?’
Focus on the journey. As a highly goal oriented person, it took me years to fully embrace: ‘enjoy the journey’. Now I realise each day that if I am not enjoying now, then what’s the point? Now is all we ever have. Let’s enjoy it!
More than anything, life is not a box to be ticked. Neither is your work, nor your day. I used to be always in a rush, always behind, and often stressed. Though these patterns sometimes show up, they don’t last long, because I know how great it feels to take my time, to slow down, to be in tune with myself and life, and not to rush through everything.
These are patterns that can be changed- we can learn to slow down, be present and conscious and enjoy the ride we are on!
Connect with the magic,
Katie