'Slow Down to Speed Up': Pros and Cons of Slowing Down

“Slow down to speed up” is a counterintuitive piece of advice that suggests the best way to boost productivity and efficiency is to opt toward taking a steadier pace rather than operating at maximum speed constantly.

Consider this alongside another common piece of advice about successfully completing many different kinds of initiatives: “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.” In other words, when you place a premium on speed and deemphasize taking breathers, you actually make it harder for yourself to complete the task before you.

In life, business, and leadership, moving too fast can cause your work to suffer and your sense of well-being to decrease. Keep these three cons in mind if you feel tempted to constantly be on the go:

1. 1. Greater amounts of stress: If you approach every task at breakneck speed, you will almost inevitably experience higher levels of stress than someone who took a more methodical and steady approach. High stress acts as a disability to achieving your goals, making it harder for you to stay focused, committed, and optimistic about your work. When you slow down, you decrease your stress levels and make it easier to press on with the task before you calmly and effectively.
2. 2. Higher propensity toward errors: When you move too fast, you fail fast, too. Prioritizing speed above all else means putting things like accuracy, quality, and craftsmanship on the back burner. However, this creates more work for you in the future than you would’ve had to do if you had simply slowed down. Rather than churning out a quality product at an even pace on the first go-around, you’ll spend time correcting the errors you made rushing through it. This can create double or even triple the amount of the work you otherwise would have had to do.
3. 3. Increased miscommunication: If you rush through everything, you affect your ability to communicate effectively with your team members. In the short term, you may forget to share vital information with them, hamstringing the project along the way. As these miscommunications stack up, they create more work for everybody.

When you slow down to speed up, you prioritize a steady pace over an exhausting sprint. Here are just three pros you may experience from taking this advice to heart:

1. 1. Better communication: As you pace yourself, you’ll likely find it easier to communicate effectively with your other team members. Rather than rush to get things done on your own, you can work together to ensure everyone has what they need to complete the project in a timely manner. Better communication leads to more efficient work in the long run.
2. 2. Improved productivity: When you slow down for the first time, you may worry you’ll be less able to accomplish goals. Ironically, giving yourself space to take a breather helps recharge you to become more productive and quality-driven. Higher productivity leads to higher sales, and higher sales lead to higher operating profits. As you can see, slowing down to speed up can reap a multitude of rewards.
3. 3. Lower amounts of stress: Slowing down to speed up greatly reduces your stress levels, making it far easier for you to focus on tasks and complete them on time with a greater sense of completion and calm. Taking a breather helps you pace yourself so you can complete the race to the finish line.

If your default mode is to work as fast as you can, slowing down to speed up can feel quite counterintuitive. Consider these tips to help put this piece of advice into action:

• Meet with your team members. Ask your other teammates for feedback about how you can all pace out your work to prevent anyone from getting too overwhelmed. If every day feels like a frontline battle instead of a creative exercise, the entire team’s work will suffer. After you complete a project, host a “playback” or retro meeting to assess ways you could streamline your workloads and take off the pressure to move so fast.
• Pay attention to your stress levels. If you work too fast and start to feel stressed out, remember this can greatly cloud your creativity, decision-making capabilities, and work prowess as a whole. When you feel symptoms of stress taking hold, heed them as a sign you need to take a break. Spend a few minutes in meditation. Play a game on your phone. Take a walk outside. If you allow yourself to recharge, you’ll be more capable of hitting the ground running every day without experiencing burnout.
• Seek balance. Slowing down to speed up is all about finding a balance between efficiency and effectiveness. If you feel stressed and burned out, you might be placing a higher premium on speed than on quality and self-care. Alternatively, if you feel like you’re constantly procrastinating or working in slow motion, you may want to work more efficiently. In either case, the bottom line is to seek out balance constantly, recalibrating and resting when you need to so you can work as happily and productively as possible.

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