One of the biggest changes I had so far this year: I slowed down.
Most recently, writing forced me to slow down. I realized the desire to express one clear thought compared to my old tendencies of talking about one idea after the other. I noticed I also slowed down in my conversational habits. I try to find a time when I should speak and, when I do, when I should stop. I’m a naturally fast talker and still get excited or energetic, blabbering with passion on the topics I’m familiar with. I don’t plan to become a snail talker, but I’ve become more aware of my speed. It’s a positive change.
This morning, I had a slow-run workout to build strength, not speed. I bought Cal Newport’s latest book, Slow Productivity, on Audible and started listening during my run. Now I’ve been thinking about Slow all day.
I stopped listening to audiobooks and podcasts at 1.5x-2.0x, like in the past. I enjoy listening at 1x speed now, sometimes 1.2x if I get a little impatient.
Last year, I used to have 5-10 meetings a day. I moved fast between meetings. I loved contributing to shared meeting notes while talking in meetings. I was proud of my ability to speak and type in bullets, driving conversations while leaving traces for people to follow.
In recent months, I have reduced to 2 to 5 meetings a day. I am still distracted by multiple communication channels on Slack, Mattermost, Whatsapp, Google Chat, and so on, but it takes me longer to meet people I need to meet. I stopped doing too many 1-on-1s. In collaborative work meetings, I still push for shared meeting notes, but I worry less about capturing everything. I pause for feedback, and I delete what I write if I find it nonessential or useless.
What’s going on? Is it a symptom of old age? No! Life begins at 40, and I’m still one year away.
The book Slow Productivity triggered my thinking on slowing down and its benefits across disciplines. I considered a catchphrase: “Slow is the New Fast,” which turns out is not new. One Google search away, we can find different interpretations of music, running, and work.
I write about Endurance and Entrepreneurship. Some similarities between slow running and slow productivity jump out.
Most long-distance runners know the phrase, “Run slow to run fast.” It seems counterintuitive, but many coaches say, “The long slow day is the single most important run in any training plan, regardless of the race distance.” As your body becomes adapted to slow runs, it will use fat more efficiently. They are also less taxing on your heart and lungs. Slow running can also allow for technique improvement, prevent injury, and provide consistent training.
Instead of keeping the running volume (in terms of distance) manageable in a workout, we would need to keep the volume of work at a sustainable level on a workday. Slowing down at work encourages a focus on deep work and fosters creativity. A slower pace also avoids burnout. If we work on fewer things at a time, we get mental well-being and more energy to achieve our goals.
When we always try to be productive and fast at work, our brain adapts. We either get stressed or addicted or both. Tech is a huge productivity booster and a constant distraction, especially at work. With the right tools, we can get many things done and multitask easily.
Obviously, we cannot forego speed. The main reason I follow a training program is to improve my performance at a particular race distance, be it a marathon or an Ironman. There are slow days and fast days. An 80/20 rule in endurance training is that 80% or more of the training should be at an easy pace. On hard days, go hard and reap those anaerobic benefits.
At my work, in building software, we constantly chase project deadlines as clients dictate. I am usually concerned about employees burning out because I went through such overwhelming phases before. Slow days should exist. We should leverage those days to obsess over quality. Great things take time.
I’m also reminded of Thinking Fast and Slow, which introduces System 1 and System 2 thinking. System 1 thinking is near instant, happening automatically, intuitively, and without little effort. System 2 thinking is slower and requires more effort.
So, slow is not the new fast. Slow is a companion of fast. Our fast-paced modern culture overvalues fast. Let’s make room for “slow” and even consider embracing it more often than “fast.” I look forward to continuing to listen to the Slow Productivity audiobook at a slow pace of 1x on my indoor bike tomorrow.
Next: Blog moved to endure.im