Why do it fast?
I spend so much time writing on a computer (novel, screenplay, journal, emails, etc.) that I recently started practicing my typing. Every word per minute I gain will pay me back a hundredfold – that's my evil plan.
During one of these typing sessions, I noticed something: I get much better scores when I'm not trying to go fast.
More precisely: when I focus only on accuracy (zero mistakes, going as slowly as I need to), I become both faster (in words per minute) and more accurate (in errors per sentence). In other words: I type faster when I take my time.
Hence my question: in how many areas am I inefficient (or just plain bad) because I'm trying to go too fast?
And come to think of it, why go fast?
It seems we can't help it: it's a conditioned reflex. As soon as we've mastered the basics of an activity, the next step is to want to pick up the pace. Find the technique, the trick, the gadget that will make us faster and more productive. Above all, don't waste any time.
You see it everywhere. At school, the best students are the ones who shine under time pressure. In sports, the medal goes to the fastest. At work, the first one there wins the contract or the promotion. It's so ingrained we don't even think about it anymore.
But lately, I've been organizing the resistance.
If you think about it a little, you realize there are lots of activities where speed isn't as necessary as we imagine. Roughly speaking, unless you're an ER doctor, a firefighter, or a sprinter, you've gotten into the habit of rushing through everything.
So the next time you're working, walking, or cleaning, ask yourself this magic question: "Could I do this much, much more slowly?"
This way of looking at things has transformed my daily life.
The idea that I could get a task done "at my own pace," with no thought for speed or efficiency, makes every activity much more pleasant. I procrastinate less. I'm less anxious at work. I calmly consider things I would never have dreamed of taking on before. And when I notice some background stress, I can often trace it back to an underlying pressure to perform.
But above all, this philosophy has another benefit I didn't expect: slowing down has made me much, much faster at everything.
* For those interested, my typing routine: I start with keybr, where my goal is a zero-mistake run with capitals and punctuation turned on. Once I've done it, I move on to monkeytype, where I need over 96% accuracy (French 2K with capitals and quotation marks). Finally, 10fastfingers to go as fast as possible while staying above 96%.