In Praise of Slow
Whilst sorting through our books recently I came across it again and decided to give it another go. I have to admit I was slightly resistant to the concept at first – I’m running a business, so speed is important, right? But after a while I was completely hooked and the ideas really began to sink in.
So, what’s the book about? It’s all about the Slow movement – a movement to slow down on the basis that slower is better. It covers lots of angles – food, cities, exercise, medicine, sex, work, leisure and education. It’s an absolutely fascinating read, taking examples from all over the world to build up a picture of how many people are benefiting from a slower approach.
I am absolutely convinced that slowing down in my leisure time will benefit me. If I allow myself to take my time and not feel like I have to rush through everything in the evenings and at weekends, I should be a much more chilled out person able to take things in my stride and enjoying what I do more.
However, applying it to my work is another matter. I have a fear that if I slow down too much at work then that will have a negative affect on productivity. But, that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing I can take away from the book in terms of running a business – I don’t think I’m going to be taking catnaps at work but regular breaks to clear my mind will definitely be a good idea. It’s made me realise that I’m working flat out for most of the day, apart from a short pause for lunch. That can’t be good can it? In theory if I have regular breaks I should actually become more productive.
And, an important message from the book is that you don’t have to do absolutely everything slowly. There are occasions when speed is appropriate.
I highly recommend this book. It can help you slow down enough to think about how you do things and will definitely make you look at things differently.
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Live to work / work to live
My work/life balance seems to be non-existent this week. Early mornings and late nights are what I seem to be up to. Just forcing myself to stop work for the day. It’s not good to work this late, especially when I was up at 6.30, but I did get one of those jobs done that kept getting pushed to the bottom of the list – so very satisfying. I’m hoping that leaves me with a clear day tomorrow to tackle some other important tasks.
Actually, I’m not usually one for working into the evening. Early mornings, yes, but come 5.30 I’m usually done for the day. I’m just much more of a morning person. But sometimes a bit of extra effort can help a lot – as long as it’s only occasionally. Generally I do like to chill out a bit more in the evenings, keep the stress levels down and all that. We just see to be so busy at the moment (and jolly pleased I am about it).
Stressy stress stress
I think this last week must go down as one of the most stressful I’ve had this year so far. We’ve had one of our bigger projects come to a head this week and I’ve been slogging away at getting it done. Full marks to the client for thorough testing but I did feel at times like I was being bombarded with questions. It didn’t help that we also had a number of meetings to go to, so I was run ragged going to a meeting and then rushing back to keep on top of the project work. Not to mention lots of previously quiet clients suddenly popping up with requests (it’s like they knew I was having a particularly busy week or something).
It goes to show that I still haven’t mastered stress relief. I felt like a gibbering wreck for most of the week. Thank goodness I’ve got my partner to chivvy me along and take up the slack as far as our other projects go, not to mention cook and do the washing up. Where would I be without him? I hope I can return the favour sometime when he has a busy week.
Lots of business planning has arisen from my experiences this week. This particular project ran over time considerably (to the point that I’m scared to look at the timesheet), which means that we will have ended up working for a very low hourly rate – not good at all. We’re reviewing how we approach these types of projects (ecommerce) to put a much more solid system in place. So, something positive will come out of the experience.
Running off to join a circus
I’m thinking of running off and joining a circus. What do you think? I’ve been doing so much juggling this week that I’m sure I’d make an excellent clown. Seriously though, it’s one of the skills you need to run a business isn’t it … juggling that is? There’s never just one thing to do and it’s impossible to ever sit down and just work solidly on something because there are always interruptions. It’s just one of those things when you run a business.
The trick I guess is to keep all those balls up in the air without getting phased and dropping any of them. Can I claim to be able to do that? Not always entirely successfully. Especially towards the end of the day when I’m just trying to tie things up for the day but people keep popping up with more things for me to do/sort out. But on the whole I do think I’m pretty good at it. I can keep quite a lot of information in my head at one time so that if I get an enquiry about something I have a pretty good idea of where we are with it. I’ve also been developing various ways of dealing with things – spreadsheets for tracking projects etc. and something as simple as making a list if the ‘urgent’ tasks seem to be mounting up and I feel myself loosing my cool a bit.
Has anyone else got any good techniques for coping with multiple tasks under pressure?
Need more time!
Another week whizzed by. Absolutely chocka-block with work at the moment. If I had more time I’d be reading up on time management … and a bit of stress management thrown in. I’m working really hard at planning each day and week to keep on top of everything. I think it’s working to a certain extent, the job list is long but I don’t think it’s getting any longer, which must be a good sign.
The weekend is going to be spent catching up on coursework. Got the next instalment of my management course on Tuesday so need to do some stuff for that. Hope I’ll also have time to do a bit of actual management of our business – see what an impact our busyness is having, apart from making me work flat-out. Oh yes, and mustn’t forget to fit in a bit of relaxation.
