Slowing Down Makes You Faster
Sounds weird, but let me explain.
My 5th grade teacher had a tough reputation. He was strict, but he was known as the teacher who would actually leave an impact on his students. I remember one day, after one too many of his students handed in a poorly-completed assignment to head for recess early, he quoted John Wooden.
If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”
To this day, I think about this and I see it play out in my every day life. My normal typing speed is around 80 words/min.
However, if I just take it a little bit slower, a mere 27 characters less (that is, one less keystroke every 2 seconds), my typing speed increases due to fewer errors.
This means I can spend less time going back and fixing my mistakes, just as John Wooden and my fifth grade teacher intended.
The simple act of taking a little bit of time to do things right the first time is vital in doing things faster. You spend less time going back and fixing your mistakes, if you’re lucky enough to not need to restart. You spend less time needing to check over your work. You spend less time getting yelled at by your boss.
In the same vein as how slow and steady wins the race, taking it carefully and cautiously makes you faster. And, like how we as humans strive for quality over quantity, being careful and taking it a little slower will ensure that you don’t sacrifice quantity for quality — taking it slow lets you work faster AND better, allowing you to have more time to create more.
Quality, quantity, speed, and accuracy. All achieved by taking it slow.
-L
