Want to be More Productive? Slow Down.

Growing up in the UK in the 1980s, there was a government road safety campaign with the slogan “Speed kills.” This campaign aimed to prevent drivers from speeding. The campaign was hard-hitting, which probably was why it has stuck with me.

Although TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson’s contrary view: “Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that’s what gets you.” did bring a smile to my face — you can’t argue with that logic.

Yet, there are some things where speed is essential. For me, that is helping a student retrieve their password or doing something my wife asked me to do NOW! Paramedics and doctors attending to critically ill patients and firefighters getting to a fire all require speed.

But for the most part, our work does not need speed. Whether you reply to an email now or in a couple of hours is not going to create an issue (seriously, it’s not!) or responding to your boss’s Teams message this second or in twenty minutes.

We may have conditioned ourselves to believe these things need a speedy response, but they don’t. You will not lose a client because it took you two hours to respond to their email, and your boss will not fire you because it took you twenty minutes to reply to their message.

One thing that will happen if you slow down, though, is you won’t make as many mistakes, and the quality of your work will improve. On top of that, when you remove the sense of urgency, you instantly calm down and feel a lot less stressed. ( And long-term stress WILL kill you)

Slowing down helps to improve your productivity in ways you may not have realised. For one, it allows you to think — something that is increasingly rare these days — which gives you time to consider whether something needs doing or could be done more productively.

Rushing around causes you to be impulsive, which means you do far more than you need to do.

Last week, for instance, I rushed to book a hotel so I could meet my mother at the airport when she arrived in Korea. In my haste, I did not read her arrival day correctly. Instead of seeing the “+1” on the ticket, I only saw “22 May 2024”. It wasn’t until I was about to set off on the 21st to drive the five hours to the airport that I noticed the “+1”. Which meant she arrived at 8:20 am on the 23rd.

It took me 45 minutes to sort out the reservation and change it to the next night. (Credit to Hyatt Hotels for not charging me for my error, which they had every right to do.)

Had I slowed down, I would have seen the +1, not made the error, and saved myself 45 minutes.

Consider email. There are two parts to managing your email. The first is about speed; process your inbox as fast as possible to clear your mind and get down to some important work.

The second part is about slowing down. Responding to your actionable email should be slow. It gives you time to consider your responses and to write them clearly so the recipient understands your answer and doesn’t need to ask you further clarifying questions. (How much time is wasted clarifying answers to emails you sent too quickly?)

If I rushed, I could write the first draft of this blog post in around thirty minutes. But the editing would take two or three times longer. Slowing down and taking an hour to write the first draft means the editing takes half the time, which results in the blog post being finished sooner.

Another example occurred last Saturday while we were out having dinner. The restaurant was busy, and the staff were running around taking orders and clearing tables. Just by watching them, you could see that an accident would happen. And sure enough, it did. It wasn’t long before the restaurant manager, in her haste, bumped into a staff member carrying plates of food. The food went everywhere.

The staff had to clean up the mess, and the kitchen team needed to cook more food. This was not helpful when the restaurant was already busy.

Speed kills productivity. You make mistakes you would not have made had you gone a little slower, and when you communicate, the quality of your communication diminishes, requiring more clarification.

As the US Navy Seals and UK Special Forces will tell you: “Slow is smooth; smooth is fast” Always remember that.

Thank you for reading my stories! 😊

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