So I take the chilled approach, seeking slow experts on the Web for an hour, then relaxing with some yoga moves. Instead of hunching over the keyboard, I stand up, take a deep breath and go into dog pose. Head down, bottom in the air, tuning into the eternal verities. This makes me feel dizzy, so I resort to a huddled fetal position on the floor. Then my e-mail pings.
It is Geir Bethelsen, creator of the World Institute of Slowness, who has responded to my request in about 20 minutes. He is certainly quick for a slowness guru. He stresses that slow working doesn’t just mean making time to relax — the key is to use your time to relate to colleagues.
Bethelsen cites the following “10 commandments for workplace slow”: speak to people, smile, call people by name, be friendly and helpful, be sincere, be really interested in people, be generous with praise, be careful with the feelings of others, respect their opinions and always be ready to help.
But getting in the right frame of mind is important.
“Each morning, sit down doing nothing or take a short walk, and think about what you want to accomplish that day,” he said. “And in the evening, use 10 minutes to think about what you achieved — and the high point of the day.”
Encouraged by this thought, I take another break and go out for a skinny cappuccino. Time to consider the bigger picture, think about what this article is really trying to achieve. But the world is against me. There’s a huge line in the cafe, they’ve run out of skimmed milk, and hordes of yummy-mummies are trilling at each other. I should have stayed in with a teabag. Back at my desk, I am now seriously frazzled, my inbox is full and I’ve had enough of slow working to last a lifetime.
Fortunately, another time-efficient expert on slow working is on the line.
Christopher Richards has set up a US Web site — www.slowdownnow.org — dedicated to slow working. He points out that anyone working in an office needs to think about whether they want to work at breakneck speed or whether they have a choice. Unfortunately, there is no easy way out here. Just slumping at your desk being “laid back” will make everyone hate you. The real answer is to redesign your working life.
“My interest is time poverty,” he said. “In America the anti-joy, puritan work ethic is strong. Hard work is necessary, but it is not a virtue in itself. We can either use technology or let it use us — and this takes a certain amount of self knowledge and clarification about our values.”
Richards believes we need to take a hard look at what we want work to do for us.
“In a work hierarchy, those at the bottom are powerless,” he said. “Debt means wage slavery. The way out is personal responsibility, of saving and only spending what you have. If you want more time, you may have to give up a shopping habit.”
So there you have it. Slow working means renegotiating your relationship with money, not coming in late telling your colleagues to chill. Looks like my days as a stress junkie aren’t quite over yet.
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