“Anything worth doing is worth doing
slowly,” said underrated philosopher Mae West. I’ve slowed down a lot in recent years, not
entirely by choice. The surprising thing is how little this has affected
outcomes. It has affected the process substantially, removing much
stress as a bonus. Oh, it means prioritizing: delaying or canceling some side
projects rather than making frenetic attempts to multitask. The important stuff
still gets done however, if anything more reliably on time. There are times when hurrying is
necessary. We might need to get to the airport to catch a flight or we might
need to meet a deadline for a tax filing. Of course we wouldn’t be so rushed
had we not so crammed our days with other busyness that we left ourselves
insufficient time for those tasks. Nonetheless, we all make that mistake
sometimes, so the events happen. Generally, though, rushing accomplishes
little. It leads to errors (having to do something over is not a time saver) and
unhappiness. There is a vast literature both ancient
and modern on the value of slowing down. They range from fables (you know the
classic) to Zen Buddhist tracts (e.g. Haemin Sunim’s The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down) to medical studies.
Corporate efficiency experts are on board too, even though some managers
haven’t gotten the message. A recent article in Inc. Magazine is typical: Why
Rushing Through Tasks Is Killing Your Productivity. “It's not about how
much you do,” the article states. “It's about taking the time to give your best
and refusing to sacrifice well-being.” In other words, doing something slowly
but right is better than doing a lot of things quickly but badly – not just for
you but for the company’s bottom line. Dave Mastovich, CEO and founder of
MASSolutions, which he describes as a No Bullshit Marketing Consultancy, agrees.
He says in a podcast titled Slow Down to
Speed Up, “The myth about rushing is that if we move faster, and we move
and rush, that is going to help us and save us time, when in reality, it
doesn’t save us much time at all if we step back, and it definitely adds stress
and impacts our health.” He further says that rushing rarely saves more than 3
or 4 percent in time while having negative effects, not just on you but on
others, that more than negate any benefits.
In Psychology
Today Susan Biali Haas M.D. describes working with clients who face burnout from their constant rushing not just at work but with their
families She writes, “If you slow
down and work and live more intentionally, and if you take better care of
yourself, you’ll probably be way more effective. At everything in your life.”
It helps ease that burnout too. She adds, “Forget the multi-tasking and allow
yourself the luxury of being present with whatever you’re doing. We know from
studies that multitasking doesn’t actually work.” She acknowledges that
sometimes it is inescapable, but says not to allow it to become a default
practice.
Rushing through meals is linked to
obesity. There are numerous studies on this, e.g. Slow Down: Behavioural and Physiological Effects of Reducing Eating
Rate published in the NIH: National Library of Medicine, which compared
groups of fast and slow eaters. The abstract states, “Two hours post-meal, the
slow rate group reported greater fullness (effect size = 0.7) and more accurate
portion size memory (effect sizes = 0.4), with a linear relationship between
time taken to make portion size decisions and the BOLD [blood-oxygen-level-dependent]
response in satiety and reward brain regions.” Fast eaters ate more. That is
but one health effect of rushing. Healthline
lists among other physical effects of “hurry sickness” (habitual rushing) trouble
sleeping, changes in appetite, fatigue, headaches, stomach issues, and decreased
immune health. None of this is really a surprise. All
of us (well, most of us anyway) know intuitively that rushing around habitually
is bad for us physically and mentally. So why do we do it? I don’t really know,
but I sometimes suspect it is for the same reason some people drink or do
drugs. The world is a scary and hard place in many ways – and then you die.
Over-occupying oneself is as effective as getting one’s mind off all that as a
double shot of Jack Daniel’s – even though, strangely enough, probably no better
in health effects. Yet that is not all to the world there is (the Peggy Lee song notwithstanding). There are
roses, too, and the age-old advice to stop and smell them is still good. (I
won’t use the “smell the coffee” metaphor since caffeine seems to run counter
to the point.) As I mentioned in the beginning, my own
slowdown has more to do with circumstances than any wise choices, but I notice
the benefits all the same. I’m also planning a very leisurely lunch.
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