Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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September 5, 2008

Hurry Up, Slow Down, and Take Your Time

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 7:20 am

Up, Down, and In-Between

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On Friday at the end of a four-day week, I find myself trying to work out

What’s with time that the week seems to have gone by so fast and yet Tuesday seems so long ago?

Much as I’d like to reflect on that perception, at the moment it’s just a shiny distraction. It’s a luxury to examine the time warp of four-day work weeks. My focus belongs on things that I need to get off my mind, off my desk, off my radar screen. I’m tripping over a truth of working efficiently.

The more I want to hurry up, the more I need to slow down.

Slow has definite advantages. I find slow and focused is more productive than multitasking. Other folks find it takes stress completely out of the formula. An entire Slow Movement has grown around the concept of slowing down. Personally, I find slow only works at time that require high focus and great productivity in small spaces.

find I’m in agreement with Suzanne Stinnett, thinking that slow, as a global fix, will never work . . .

Being a slow typist doesn’t get you much these days. Technology knows nothing of slow. It is 100% about speed, and if it isn’t faster, it’s dead. Okay, maybe not 100%, because it’s also about size.

Slow whatever is a natural response to fast everything, I think. But they’re just extremes.

If hurry is up and slow is down and they’re both extreme, what’s in between?

I’m exploring the phrase, take your time.

What does take your time. mean to you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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17 Comments to “Hurry Up, Slow Down, and Take Your Time”

  1. September 5th, 2008 at 7:34 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi Liz

    Mind if I turn it upside down? I prefer the phrase: ‘make your time’ instead of take.

    Making time for something - a business task, a listening ear, a letter written, a restful cup of coffee etc - gives IMHO focus and clear priority. And in your own hands so it becomes your responsibility too.

    On another subject, but related to your post, who set the working week between Monday till Friday anyway? A ‘historical dictate’? Why can’t we make our own work-week?

    Karin H (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  2. September 5th, 2008 at 8:12 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    “Make your time.” I like that. It’s a powerful change in thinking.

    What I find in the four-day week is that we still try to pack in five days worth of doing. No wonder we come out this feeling like we didn’t get it all done. :)

    We’re such an interesting species. :)

  3. September 5th, 2008 at 8:35 am
    --Deb said

    In between is just straight, level, calm … Ahhhh….

  4. September 5th, 2008 at 10:34 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi Liz

    Try working 7 days! (At some points you start thinking: I don’t have enough tasks ;-) - but some reading and pondering will get you over this feeling soon)

    Karin H

  5. September 5th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
    SpaceAgeSage said

    Taking, making time — what I strive for is flow. When you align yourself with the forces of the universe, God, the Tao, Source, the Creator — whatever you want to call it — then your energy is in resonance with abundance and limitlessness. When I manage to flow, time becomes not an adversary or a resource, but perfect, as in perfect timing. It takes seeing a really big picture for this to happen or to focus on the smallest lady bug on the flower, but when I flow, life is simply NOW.

  6. September 5th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
    Maya said

    I try to maintain a sense of timelessness, since time is really made up in our mind’s perception and so often used in a way that is stress inducing.

  7. September 5th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
    Amy Derby said

    Lizzy (it’ll stick) — My (alcoholic) father (prone to silly saying) used to always tell people to ‘hurry up and slow down’ and I spend many moments pondering what that silly saying meant. At some point I gave up on it, assuming it was one of those things only SuperDrunks could understand. Now that he’s dead, I think I have it figured out a little better. Either way, you’re screwed. :-)

    In Law Firm Life, version 1.0, I spent at least an hour a day telling people to breathe. Folks who bill by one-tenth of an hour talk way too fast and have way too many heart attacks. I’m too dyslexic to multi-task when I’m working on something really tough, so in version 2.0 (Home Office Edition), I try my best to shut down everything but the one thing I need to get the job done. Then I can play again. By slowing down the other parts of my brain, the hurry-upping side seems to work better. Dyslexia 101.

  8. September 5th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
    Janet B said

    I think what’s in between the two extremes is pausing…taking a few slow breaths (in the midst of the hurry) so you remember where you are and what it’s for. Being fast, intentionally, can work — but *nothing but* fast usually means (a) at some point you lose perspective and are rushing around after the wrong thing, and (b) burnout (we knew that).

    Pausing also helps me remember when slow really is called for (hurrying with my toddler niece doesn’t work for either of us, and sometimes lingering over the wording of an email builds relationship and makes email less of a grind).

  9. September 5th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
    Cath Lawson said

    Hi Liz - I hate that feeling that I’m hurrying to much. And I do it a lot. Take your time for me, means take a deep breathe and stop and think about what I’m actually doing and work out the easiest way to achieve it.

  10. September 6th, 2008 at 9:55 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Deb,
    I’m glad I didn’t get to these comments until this morning. When I woke to find a blog post had made a break for it, your comment was the perfect response to how I’m feeling. Thanks!

  11. September 6th, 2008 at 9:57 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    Isn’t a person who would say that I don’t work 7 or 8 days . . . I’m with you always doing something. Reading is my salvation too. :)

  12. September 6th, 2008 at 11:06 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Sage,
    I so like the idea of focusing on “perfect timing.” To me that’s the farthest notion from striving for perfection. I’ll be thinking about that all day.

  13. September 6th, 2008 at 11:07 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Maya!
    Being in the moment does lend itself to a sense of timeless, like Sage says going for “flow.” Being fully engaged makes work fly and feel like we’re living. I agree that’s it our minds that make time and make time so stress inducing.

  14. September 6th, 2008 at 11:09 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Amy,
    That’s a great statement you make, By slowing down the other parts of my brain, the hurry-upping side seems to work better. I’m working on making that happen today so that I can feel as if I’ve accomplished many thing. :)

  15. September 6th, 2008 at 11:10 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Cath!
    I hate that hurry feeling too. I also hate what it does to my disposition. Somehow it dis-positions me toward thinking that other people are in my way. Then I really do need a time out . . .

  16. September 6th, 2008 at 11:12 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Janet!
    Pausing. What a concept — just put a comma in the middle of what we’re doing. Intentionality makes a difference fast or slow, but slow works better for me too.

  17. September 8th, 2008 at 2:34 am
    Andrew Lightheart said

    Hi Liz

    I’ve recently realised that my goal-setting barometer is sent inHUmanly high.

    So I’ve been working on setting it (for me) ridiculously low and doing things (for me) ridiculously imperfectly.

    For example, I started baking again recently. My next thought is: how about I work through the whole of Nigella’s Domestic Goddess recipe by recipe, and blog about it with photos…

    Yeah, right. How about baking a *tiny* bit more, when the mood takes me?

    Just took up knitting again (quilting was way too much measuring and cutting for me), and what’s the first thing I look at? Afghans.

    I’m getting WAY more done by doing things imperfectly. Oh, and done pretty bloody well, if I look at them objectively.

    Oh, oh, and I’m forcing myself to take a whole day off in the week. A WHOLE unscheduled day.

    It’s making me way more productive on the other four days.

    It comes down to ‘What’s truly do-able today?’

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