Embrace Slowness
Delivering value to a customer, getting to market, fixing a bug, the internet, getting home from work, customer service, trains, and getting your Starbucks order.
Fast is good in some obvious ways.
I'll take the fast versions of all of those, please.
Faced with an Obviously Good Thing, I usually have an irresistible urge to ask "yeah, but what about the opposite?"
Can "slow" also be a good thing?
In my own life, I've been trying to slow down with some things lately, so I've been thinking about this question.
Here are 8 examples of when I think "slow" wins:
1 Being present
It barely makes sense to try and enjoy the moment quickly. Finding myself at one with the moment, or the people around me, almost removes the entire concept of time.
2 Slow travel
I'm currently travelling, but I hesitate to say that. I travelled here to Vietnam, but for the past 5 months *I've been here*. Travel is an amazing way to broaden your mind, meet awesome new people, and experience life in profoundly new ways.
All of that is better when you slow down and give yourself time to settle in and really live it. Constantly moving to a new place destroys that for me. As someone who hates the word "nomad", I'm rather more tolerant of "slowmad".
3 Slow productivity
In his same-named book, Cal Newport tackles this one well. Slow productivity is productivity where you allow yourself to work at a natural pace, give yourself time to care about quality, and do fewer overall things.
That's an easy yes from me, Cal.
4 Writing
Writing slowly helps slow down my thinking. With more time I can consider my words more carefully and that makes me think more clearly.
5 Reading
The goal of reading isn't to finish. It's to understand, consider and be changed as a person in some way by the work. Slow it down and you get to take in more. Even with fiction, your imagination has more time to create versions of the new worlds, characters and realities.
6 Learning
Learning is much more effective for me when I can take my time. I often like to work backwards towards the principles of the given subject. Slow learning allows me to do that. I can properly digest new information, ponder it, and build up my own ownership of the key ideas.
7 Decision making
When it's not important to act immediately, acting slowly gives me more time to gather more information. Anecdotally, this has often led to a different decision than I would have made under time pressure. Context: this is only true when the condition I started with is met.
8 Living
An unhurried daily routine with no pressure to do anything in particular really makes for an enjoyable day.
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Of course, "slow" and "fast" are not inherently good or bad. It depends on the outcome you want. So, start with the intended outcome and work backwards to whether slow or fast helps most.