Slowing down to speed up

Like many people at this time of the year I am slowing down to be with family, to take a break from the busy-ness of work and term time. In the last two weeks I have had a couple of occasions to remind myself to slow down in order to speed up.

On one of these occasions I leapt out of the car and in my hurry, shut the door before I was properly out, on my leg, causing a nasty bruise and forcing me to stop for a few minutes to recover. In business and in busy-ness, this can happen metaphorically speaking multiple times a day. We speak before we think, we hit the send button on our email before we have really thought through the impact of our words or checked for spelling mistakes, scan the report or contract executive summary and don’t really take time to understand it, bounce from one habitual routine to another ‘bruising’ our energy and other people’s egos. There is consistent and clear scientific evidence that trying to multitask is not effective and will lead to poorer performance including more mistakes (and sore shins!).

Pablo Picasso knew the value of slowing down, after he had researched and studied an area in which he wanted to work he took a bath and let go of his conscious ideas in order to allow new ways of thinking to emerge. Albert Einstein also knew about this need for contemplation and pausing, once saying that he concentrated best away from the telephone such as when on ocean voyages. He often gave strict instructions to his secretary and his wife that he was not to be disturbed as he sought silent space to feed his creativity. And the big cats know that they must slow down first when they are stalking their prey to gather energy and power in their big muscles and to really assess the situation before they activate their plan.

As you take a break for the festive season I hope you have the chance to notice if slowing down actually helps you think of a new idea, resolve a problem that has been at an impasse, to build your energy in useful ways or perhaps helps you reconnect to those you care about who may have been neglected throughout the year. Try and notice how your attention is affected when you slow down and really pay attention, pause, really focus on one thing at a time. If you do notice something useful ask yourself how you might bring this learning into your daily workplace habits all year round. Practicing to pause and take a mindful moment is counter intuitive to many. The idea of tending to one thing at a time and choosing to give it your full attention requires practice and a conscious effort. Any change initially feels unfamiliar and even uncomfortable, however humans are incredibly adaptable when we decide to be.

I’m choosing to question the status quo and to practice doing one thing at a time with my full attention, at least some of the time. I invite you to join me, your peer support will help me keep practising.  We tend to think about our issues in habitual ways, effectively erecting a barrier to our own capacity for creativity. To break this tendency we need to pause, to stop. Reading One Second Ahead by Hougaard, Carter and Coutts (2015) will give you the best grounding for mindfulness at work there is. Hougaard et al.’s book is practical, evidence based and inspiring. The authors will explain the research (neuroscience) and how we can use it to our advantage for innovation, clarity of thought and for our own longevity.

Have a wonderful festive season, I hope its full of creative energy that arises from an increase in mindful moments and that you return to work ready to do something different – slow down to speed up.

Sharee Johnson is a Psychologist and accredited senior trainer with The Potential Project.