Lower Your Tempo

We live in a hectic, 24/7 society, full of power-walking workaholics where slowing down is for losers.  One recent survey by the consumer research firm OTX found that many of us use high-tech gadgets to get 31 hours of work out of a 24-hour day.

So what could be less relevant to the working day than the “slow” movement?  This came into being in Italy 20 years ago when fast-food chain McDonald’s tried to introduce Big Macs in Rome.  From this notion sprang the wider “slow” movement, which now includes slow travel, slow shopping and even slow design.  But slow working?  I don’t think so.  Call me old-fashioned, but that used to be called “going on strike.”… However, we’re not talking laziness here, but strategies for survival.

“Slow is very important in psychology in general”, says a reader in occupational psychology at the University of Bedfordshire.  “It gives you time for recovery from stress.  Slowing down means you have time to let your body and mind get back to baseline.  If you don’t, there is more wear and tear on your cardiovascular system.  And eventually, not taking time to do this will have a negative effect on your immune system.  Your long-term health may be at risk and you’re more likely to burn out early.”

We need to pace ourselves and give ourselves time to think clearly … because the human brain needs to shift gears between tasks, we need to do one thing at a time.  The more switching back and forth we do – between, say, talking on the phone, scanning e-mail and thinking about the next meeting – the less impressive our performance will be.  And high performance, not long hours, is what employers are looking for. The 24/7 philosophy is partly self-inflicted.  Just because supermarkets are open 24 hours a day doesn’t mean we have to google in the wee hours.

“A lot is the pressure we put on ourselves,” she said.  “In the past you would write a letter, get it typed up, then post it.  When you had a reply, a few days later, you would think about it before responding.  Now we expect ourselves to be in constant communication with others.  You need to ask yourself” What do I expect of other people?  And what do they expect of me?  If you want a nice, long career, get into some good habits now,” she said.

Gier Bethelsen, creator of the World Institute of Slowness,…stresses that slow working doesn’t just mean making time to relax – the key is to use your time to relate to colleagues….10 commandments for workplace slow: speak to people, smile, call people by name, be friendly and helpful, be sincere, be really interested in people, be generous with praise, be careful with feelings of others, respect their opinions and always be ready to help.

But getting in the right frame of mind is important.  “Each morning, sit down doing nothing or take a short walk, and think about what you want to accomplish that day.  And in the evening, use 10 minutes to think about what you achieved – and the high point of the day.”

Christopher Richards has set up a US Web site – www.slowdown.org.  He points out that anyone working in an office needs to think about whether they want to work at breakneck speed or whether they have a choice.  Unfortunately, there is no easy way out here.  Just slumping at your desk being “laid back” will make everyone hate you.  The real answer is to redesign your working life…. We need to take a hard look at what we want work to do for us.

“In a work hierarchy, those at the bottom are powerless,” he said.  “Debt means wage slavery.  The way out is personal responsibility, of saving and only spending what you have.  If you want more time, you may have to give up a shopping habit.”

So there you have it.  Slow working means renegotiating your relationship with money, not coming in late telling your colleagues to chill.  Looks like my days as a stress junkie aren’t quite over yet.

by Sally O’Reilly, the Guardian, May 2008