How to Slow Down to Get More Done

Or, how to pace yourself this summer

I did something recently that I had never done in my adult life before: I tried slowing down before vacation rather than speeding up and buckling down. 😱

You know that pre-vacation crunch I’m talking about: where you rush to finish everything possible that can be completed before you go, and also leave reminders or write instructions for other people to do “your things” while you’re away. It comes from a good place — you want to ‘put a bow’ on everything so that you can go off on your vacation with total peace of mind.

All good of course, except that as a (recovering) perfectionist I always overdid it to the point of exhaustion, making lists as long as a roll of toilet paper and essentially trying to cram in more work than I would’ve done if I hadn’t even left! So, after remembering that the point of a vacation is to actually miss some work days (what??) I rebooted, returned to my trusty slow-down tips that I’ve found helpful over the years, and saw the unexpected happen — no more late nights before the vacation, all the important projects wrapped up with a bow, and flying off on an airplane without my work following me into the clouds.

Here are my slow-down tips that I’ve used successfully in a variety of situations. You might think they’d only work for actual slow times at work, or just for the regular day to day, but building up your slow-down muscle or your slow-down habits is actually most essential to warding off the stress of crunch times. If you practice them regularly, they give you a clearer head during stressful times and allow you to make better decisions and be more productive when things get chaotic or challenging at work.

Remove stuff from your To-Do list (rather than cross it off)

Realize that there are two ways for something to come off your to-do list. One is (of course) that you’ve done it and crossed it off. The other is that you reevaluate your list and remove the less-important things from it. Reevaluating your commitments and simply removing stuff from the list is equally as important a habit as making time to accomplish things and tick them off.

Task-break effectively

Finishing a task at the exact point where you can best pick it up later is a fine art. Putting things in an organized, designated bucket for later — for example a task list devoted to just your accounting — and returning to that when you can devote a dedicated block of time to that bucket can help you plow through routine tasks that don’t need to be done immediately.

Schedule wind-down time at the end of the day

I do 15 minutes of wind-down time at the end of each work day, to decompress, evaluate, and process that day, making the evening less stressful and that night’s sleep more restful.

Do the most important stuff in the “morning”

If you could only get one thing done today — do that thing in the morning. Or, if there’s something you need to get that only you can do and no one else — do that in the morning too.

A note for my fellow night owls: I use “morning” quite loosely. It just means the block of time when you have the most energy. The morning’s satisfaction trickles down to the rest of the day and can give it a more relaxed pace or an energy boost to keep going. It’s like a productivity breakfast.

Paradoxically, when I make a concerted effort to do less, and to enjoy each thing I’m doing — more significant things actually get done. So I’m done cramming for vacation like you cram for a test! Pass that margarita and enjoy your summer everyone 🍹

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