Quick, quick, quick! Everything must go so quickly, even at work, where the expressions and words “urgent”, “asap” or “it was for yesterday” have become normal. Yet, it is not always easy to provide work of quality, to concentrate or to be creative if we do not have the time necessary to do so. Do you feel concerned ? Why don’t you try “slow working” where you can try to slow down in order to feel better and to be more productive?
Do you know the “slow” trend? “Slow life”, “slow food”, but also “slow working”? Yes, even at work, slowing down is a trend. The goal is to take more time to think about each project, to be more strategic, without seeking to complete everything as fast as possible and to find an organization that helps feel less overworked. The benefits are numerous : less stress, more time, more concentration… Fine, but how can this be applied ? Here are a couple of tips to try.
Try to identify 2 or 3 essential missions for the day and schedule one or two-hour time slots to concentrate fully on one project. Try not to overcharge your day to not be unnecessarily stressed. It is also important to keep some empty slots where you will be able to deal with urgencies or just have some time to think. You can even decide to devote some of these slots to think thoroughly about one project in particular. This will help step back and may help to take better decisions.
Your phone is ringing, you get back to your file before being disturbed again by an email notification? It is urgent! You start working on this other financial project, before getting back to… What were you doing again? In short, at the end of the day you do not know how to think anymore! To be more efficient and less exhausted at the end of the day, why don’t you try “monotasking” by only doing one thing at a time?
To be a true “slow-worker”, it is important to decide that the end of your workday really is the end of your workday! It’s time to start new activities in order to find balance between work and personal life!