“How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything.” This quote has been stuck in my head for the past several days ever since reading it in a blog. It resonated with me and helped me bring more intention to what I’m trying to accomplish. For me, it meant, slow down, be more intentional, avoid mistakes, and act with purpose.
Other ways of saying this, such as stop and smell the roses, take a breath, stay clam, enjoy the quiet, all seem to connote deceleration, stagnation, and lack of ambition. None of these have ever made me want to hit pause or take my foot off the gas. I’m more go, go, go! In work, in life, and in my mind. Being a quick thinker and mover has always served me well, until one day when it didn’t. Learning to slow down, breathe deeply and think quietly is my new goal.
One Moment of Not Paying Attention Led to Injury
Think about it: One step (on black ice) in February brought me down. I put out my hand too late, broke my wrist and needed surgery, followed by weeks of PT, patient heeling, and learning to be much more careful with how I move through space. I still bike, ski and enjoy going fast, but now I go fast carefully. Since I sold my Vespa scooter, I no longer have any desire to ride around the city darting through traffic, watching out for potholes and assholes. But I still Citibike and love the feeling of soaring along, passing slow-moving taxis, cars and trucks.
But now, post wrist accident, I actually watch where I step and even (call me geriatric) hold onto stair railings if I feel like I could tumble and re-injure my wrist. Had I not been striding along on a frozen parking lot, rushing ahead to get to the restaurant on time, and not looking where I was stepping, or had I used the flashlight on my phone to illuminate the surface of the parking lot, or had I parked in a closer spot, or simply looked down, I could have possibly avoided this fate.
The vast majority of slips, trips and falls come from not paying attention. Ironically when you are biking, skiing or even scootering, you are paying more attention to every stick, pothole or icy patch. It’s when you’re just walking around, or even at home in your kitchen, that the relaxed state means you are more likely to take a spill.
Being intentional, and purposeful and yes more careful, means learning to slow down rather than rush or race ahead. It is a lesson I have been late to internalize.
Slowing Down Means Getting More Done
The late great Princeton economics and psychology professor, Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics, wrote the now-famous international best-selling book Thinking: Fast and Slow, explained that we have two systems that govern our thought processes, System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional while System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Think of them as the accelerator and brakes in your creative thoughts, and one leads your forward while the other circles back to check your work.
So that’s what I am working on next: Slowing down and taking my time to do things right. Not just dash something off and hit send. I rely way to heavily on fast thinking, but as Kahneman points out, that can lead to certain biases (planning what to eat, a vacation, a business decision) where you assume you know what will make you happy, or work out, but you are likely basing these assumptions on past information and experiences, not future leaning information. Learning to slow down can have better results, as you question your assumptions.
Distraction is the Enemy
I am trying to not allow distracting thoughts enter my brain when I should be paying attention to what is in front of me. That means during my spin workouts, instead of checking my phone for texts, I am trying to focus on my legs, and body position, so that I can apply the pressure the instructor is asking us for in each interval. I am making more of an effort to put the phone down in general, to pay attention to people in the room or in the meeting (this is so obvious it’s painful to type). As someone who thinks she can do two, three or more things at once …. as watch a show on TV while working through junk emails, while patting the dog, while icing my arm … I don’t do any of it well. That has to stop.
What are you working on doing better? If you gave yourself a grade, across the board, on all the little things you are endeavoring to get done, or improve – your nutrition, your workouts, your work productivity and effectiveness, your friendships and relationship, your finances, a job hunt, a new place to live – are you giving each of these projects and people your all?
It sounds exhausting (to try to achieve your best and bring your full attention or brainpower or enthusiasm and energy to everything you do) but the opposite is true: You can either work hard avoiding hard work, procrastinating or rushing through tasks, making stupid mistakes or errors in judgment, and suffer the consequences, or you can do the work right and be able to feel good about “doing your best.”
I cringe at the fact that I let a typo get into a work letter. I type too fast, and even without a broken wrist make frequent key-stroke errors. Add to that a sticky space bar and old keyboard and I have to bang on each key as if it were an old-fashioned typewriter, where you had to return the carriage at the end of each line. My spelling is atrocious, my eyesight is abysmal and my lack of patience and propensity to read and copy edit is lazy at best, or a sign of life-long ADD at worst. I know this about myself and still I make errors and hit send too soon. Ugh.
Instead of looking at my phone or constantly listening to news on my headphones as I walk around my neighborhood doing errands or walking the dog, I am trying to just breathe, slowly in (counting to four), holding it (for a four count), slowly out (exhaling as I count four) and then leaving my lungs empty for a four count. When I do this type of box breathing and deliberate cleansing of my brain I find that what rushes back in are more productive thoughts, which help me feel calm and collected, ready to take on the to-do list while not being overwhelmed.
So what does this mean for you, me and all of us? The lesson may be as simple as: Pay attention, be intentional, slow way down and do things right – as opposed to “get things done!” You may find that the outcome is likely to be better, you won’t make mistakes or need to double back and redo things.
Slowing down and paying attention also requires me to be more present in all things, from conversations to workouts to eating, to how I walk down the street and observe more of what’s happening around me. These sound so basic, but to someone who has been used to rushing, multi-tasking and getting more done in a day than most people would think possible, I realize I am only fooling myself. Checking the box doesn’t mean doing it right.
Bottom Line: Try activating your slow thinking, pay attention to what you’re doing or trying to accomplish, and allow intentionality to replace productivity. You may be surprised that you actually get more done, and feel good about doing it right.
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