Just Slow the F*ck Down

We’re in full speed into Fall mode and new routines, which is likely being a sense of refresh to all aspects of your life. But do you know what I’ve seen so much in the last few weeks? You know those emails that are like “Oops! We hit send too quickly” or something to that effect. Essentially, someone somewhere was rushing to get something done, or trying to multitask, and hit “send” without taking one last look.

We get it, we are human, after all. But I think I’ve actually gotten 4 or 5 of those THIS WEEK. To me that just says one thing: we need to slow the f*ck down!

We’ve said it a million times and we’ll continue saying it: multitasking isn’t actually a thing and it’ll just slow you down. Or cause you to make mistakes. Jumping from one thing to the next without really investing yourself into the current task isn’t really that productive. It’ll actually take you longer to get something done rather than spending less time on one task at a time. But because some leaders said at some point in time, that multitasking is a strength, we all think we need to be good at it.

Being good at multitasking really just means you’re really good at being really bad at your job.

There. We said it.

Now, what if we focused our energy and “multitasking abilities” on completing one task at a time? Close the five million tabs you have open on your computer – they aren’t helping you.

You’ll be able to knock off your to-do list WAY faster than you thought it would take. And you’ll probably make way fewer mistakes – meaning, I’ll get fewer emails of people trying to be clever covering up their mistakes. I’m not trying to say these things won’t happen, or that I’ll never get one of these emails again (hell, I’ll probably need to send a handful at some point!), but as we get caught up in the chaos that is Fall, we need to remember to take a breath and slow down.

If you’ve got a bunch of emails, newsletter drafts, or anything that requires proofing to do, why not grab a coffee (or beverage of your choice!) and turn off all other distractions and batch your proofing tasks together?! It’ll seem less daunting if you make a “thing” out of it, and more enjoyable with your beverage.

Can we just agree that we don’t need to always be moving at lightning speed and that it’s ACCEPTABLE to move at a pace that is sustainable that produces your best quality of work? Cause that’s where we’d like to be, with the kind of people who still value quality over quantity.