The alarm rings and you hop out of bed. Another day is off and running. A quick shower. Wake the kids and hasten to get them ready for school so they won’t be late. Eat a quick breakfast. Hurry out to the car and off you go to work, making a mental note to remember the appointment/meeting you have later in the evening. You weave back and forth looking for the fastest lane while the radio DJ barks out the minutes — 7:33, 7:41, quarter to. Reaching work, you sprint into the building and leap up the stairs three at a time, arriving at your desk with seconds to spare. You take a couple of deep breaths, then remember that the project you didn’t finish last night must be sent to your boss’ desk by 10:00. Meanwhile, you’ve got another load of work also demanding your urgent attention.

If you are a student, you wake up with a start after studying late into the night, take a quick shower and grab anything you can eat to at least keep your stomach from protesting then you dash out for that 7am lecture. As you get to class you remember that the assignment given two days earlier is already due for submission and you have not finished it yet. Before you're done thinking about that, your lecturer comes in and tells you ‘we just have a few weeks left in this semester so we must move at a very fast pace to do all we have to do within this short period’ The race starts. A fixed class by 5pm, a weekend lecture, multiple assignments, etc and soon everybody begins the usual song ‘No time!’

Kids are not left out. They are forced to grow up too quickly, to get into the best schools and get perfect grades and extremely high GPA's so they can go to top level universities! No time to enjoy their childhood.

More and more it feels like our lives have turned into a grueling race toward a finish line we never reach. No matter how fast we go, no matter how many comforts we forgo in order to quicken our pace, there never seems to be enough time. Even when we are taking a break, our minds are turning over on the next task to be accomplished and as such we are stressed out. Many relationships (family and friends) have been sacrificed on the altar of busy schedules. Many people are down with stress-induced illnesses and some have even died.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Jay Walljasper said ‘As a kid in the 1960s, I remember hearing that one of the biggest challenges of the future would be what to do with all our time. Amazing inventions were going to free up great stretches of our days for what really matters: friends, family, fun. But just the opposite has happened. We’ve witnessed a proliferation of dazzling time-saving innovations — jet travel, personal computers, cellphones, microwaves, fast foods, the World Wide Web — yet the pace of life has been cranked to a level that would have been unimaginable three decades ago...

All in the name of productivity, of having more, of appearing busy, to ourselves and to others.
But life doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, it’s counterproductive.
If our goal is to create, to produce amazing things, to go for quality over quantity, then rushing is not the most effective way to work.
Slowing down and focusing is always more effective.
Rushing produces errors. It’s distracting to flit from one thing to the next, with our attention never on one thing long enough to give it any thought or create anything of worth. Hurrying produces too much noise to be able to find the quiet the mind needs for true creativity and profound thinking.

So yes, moving quickly will get more done. But it won’t get the right things done.

There is no rigid step-by-step guide to moving slower, but here are some things to consider and perhaps adopt, if they work for your life. Some things might require you to make major changes, but they can be done over time.
1. Do less. Cut back on your projects, on your task list, on how much you try to do each day. Focus not on quantity but quality. Pick 2-3 important things — or even just one important thing — and work on those first. Save smaller, routine tasks for later in the day, but give yourself time to focus.

2. Have fewer meetings. Some meetings are usually a big waste of time. And they eat into your day, forcing you to squeeze the things you really need to do into small windows, and making you rush. Try to have blocks of time with no interruptions, so you don’t have to rush from one meeting to another.

3. Practice disconnecting. Have times when you turn off your devices and your email and chat notifications. Time with no phone calls, when you’re just creating, or when you’re just spending time with someone, or just reading a book, or just taking a walk, or just eating mindfully. You can even disconnect for (gasp!) an entire day, and you won’t be hurt.

4. Give yourself time to get ready and get there. If you’re constantly rushing to appointments or other places you have to be, it’s because you don’t allot enough time in your schedule for preparing and for traveling. Pad your schedule to allow time for this stuff. If you think it only takes you 10 minutes to get ready for work or a date, perhaps give yourself 30-45 minutes so you don’t have to shave in a rush or put on makeup in the car. If you think you can get there in 10 minutes, perhaps give yourself 2-3 times that amount so you can go at a leisurely pace and maybe even get there early.

5. Start to eliminate the unnecessary. Some things may appear urgent but they are not really important. When you do the important things with focus, without rush, there will be things that get pushed back, that don’t get done. And you need to ask yourself: how necessary are these things? What would happen if I stopped doing them? How can I eliminate them, delegate them?

6. Practice mindfulness. Simply learn to live in the present, rather than thinking so much about the future or the past. When you eat, fully appreciate your food. When you’re with someone, be with them fully. When you’re walking, appreciate your surroundings, no matter where you are.
7. Slowly eliminate commitments. We’re over-commitment, which is why we’re rushing around so much. I don’t just mean with work — projects and meetings and the like. Parents have tons of things to do with and for their kids, and we over-commit our kids as well. Many of us have busy social lives, or civic commitments. But in trying to cram so much into our lives, we’re actually deteriorating the quality of those lives. Slowly eliminate commitments — pick 4-5 essential ones, and realize that the rest, while nice or important, just don’t fit right now. Politely inform people, over time, that you don’t have time to stick to those commitments.

The most important thing in all these is a realization that life is better when you move at a slower, more relaxed pace, instead of hurrying and rushing and trying to cram too much into every day. Instead, get the most out of every moment. Life is better when unrushed. And given the fleeting nature of this life, why waste even a moment by rushing through it? Moving at a slower pace in this context doesn't mean that you are unserious, it means that you want to get the most out of everything you do.

The real test of a successful life is how you experience the journey. It’s about how you live each day, how you treat the people who are close to you, whether at home or at work or at play. It’s how you feel about yourself and what you are doing with your time. Are you happy and enjoying yourself? Are you working towards your dreams at your own pace and not at someone else’s? Are you being kind enough, loving enough, tolerant enough? Are you working hard enough but in a consistent, steady kind of way rather than in a tearing haste?

Let me close with this statement from Gandhi ‘There is more to life than increasing its speed.’

Don't be so busy making a living that you forget to make a life

Your feedback...

How is your daily schedule and how have you managed to stay in control despite the rush everywhere?

Very much correct. Our lives these days are too fast paced. And we have come to see it as normal. I personally can be very much occupied with many things that I sometimes forget my own needs. I'm so busy that I don't call people often and sometimes when I'm having a conversation with someone, I'm thinking of how to quickly wrap it up and go pursue other things on my mind. But I'm coming to realise that life is too short for one to engage oneself with so much that one misses out on the very essence of life. I need to create more time for myself and my loved ones. The joy and satisfaction one derives from doing just one thing of quality at a time is none existent when one takes up so many things at once and never really does anyone well enough.

Ok,so true

Nice tips @Op...... But the main thing is there is no time to check the time anymore....... Time waits for nobody, so you just have to manage the little time you have well.

An elderly person once said: No one on their death bed will ever say " I wish I had worked more , or I had done this course or that or bring me my certificates so that I can see how many degrees I have or bring my bank statements I want to see how much I have in my accounts before I die" On your death bed you regret not spending more time with loved ones and not doing other things outside of work that you always wanted to do but because you were so consumed with working, life just passed you by. Life is a journey not a race . . . We shouldn ' t get caught up in the rat race . Saying no to some things does us good.
Good one eleojo23

Forgot to add this to the original post.

'I do not fear failure. What I fear is succeeding at something beyond my wildest dream only to find out that it did not matter' - Francis Chan

Mine is more fulfilling o.
It gets better EVERY year!
I have learned to work smart!

More contributions..

I trust Nigerians, you'd be labelled as unserious element.
I hate it when people judge you based on their personal concept of ideal living, while failing to realise that what works for you might not work for me.

vikel2104: An elderly person once said: No one on their death bed will ever say " I wish I had worked more , or I had done this course or that or bring me my certificates so that I can see how many degrees I have or bring my bank statements I want to see how much I have in my accounts before I die" On your death bed you regret not spending more time with loved ones and not doing other things outside of work that you always wanted to do but because you were so consumed with working, life just passed you by. Life is a journey not a race . . . We shouldn ' t get caught up in the rat race . Saying no to some things does us good.
Good one eleojo23

you are correct

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These days it is hard to sell the idea of "slow and steady" to people because everyone is in the "fast and furious" mode. We all know what happens to a car without brakes.

Comments..

eleojo23: I so love this statement ' I do not fear failure. What I fear is succeeding at something beyond my wildest dream only to find out that it did not matter' - Francis Chan

Great quote

true

correct

For years i found myself caught up in the madness of the 9-5. I had to hit the reset button and reconfigure all of that.

Now, i'm good.

Interesting write-up.

My day is programmed such that no matter how busy I am I'll always have time to connect with my creator. Cause this world is temporary and competition in worldly affairs diverts us all until we visit the grave.

Interesting...

But easier said than done

following

Insightful.

Dats good one

Op u try or where u copy am try
But THC- The hustle continues...if uno do most of this things, u go broke

Nice

?

We all live a programmed life and repeat the same process everyday. Its high time we all change our commitment. It overwhelming.

alright...

We learn every new day. Just learnt some helpful tips. Nice one @Op

Nobody wishes to work like a clock. But a large percentage of people aren't their own bosses.

Dem born you well make you no the work wey your boss send you?

Nice Wriet-up @op