Create More Time by Slowing Down

I was fortunate to attend a weekend retreat a few days ago. It was called The Mindful Life Program and was run by my friend and coach Mark Molony. It all started with a drive an hour south of Melbourne to the peaceful town of Corinella on Westernport Bay. A short Friday night session kicked off the event, we had a full day Saturday and a 3/4 day on Sunday.

The course consisted of a bunch of sitting/lying meditations, a couple of walking meditations, discussions about how we see and react to typical daily situations, a few insightful videos and a bunch of time to do some personal reflections.

Coming out the other end, I feel remarkably relaxed, grounded and centred. Plus, I’m excited. I have some new tools and some new habits to practice that I feel will give me the courage and confidence to tackle some new projects that I’ve created for myself.

Slow Down First

It might seem strange, or at least counter-intuitive, that to create the experience of more time, we might just need to slow down first.

Whilst our clocks measure time at a constant rate, our personal experience is not like that. Sometimes, time flies when we’re having fun. And sometimes, time drags when we’re not. And, this is a fundamental key to creating more time.

If we can slow ourselves down, we will experience having more time.

[Tweet “Create more time in your life by slowing down #paradox #time #stress”]

Going Fast and Going Slow

Sometimes you do want to go fast to achieve your task and sometimes you want to go slower…

When learning a new task, we typically practice at slow speed to embed the key actions. For instance, if you were learning to juggle you might start with one ball, then two and finally three. As each ball is added the time between each ball being tossed and caught shortens and speeds up. And, as we practice and become more accomplished at juggling the time between balls slows down.

Similarly, once a skill has been grasped, athletes will often work at super high speed in training so when they play in an actual game their experience is slower. For example, a Formula One racing driver may run a simulation at twice normal speed to simply learn the best line to go through the corners. Then, during a race at normal speeds, their experience will be one of time slowing down to give them more time to focus on all the things that are happening around them, e.g. like racing the other cars!

Going on a retreat has a similar effect. When we’re feeling stressed and under the pump we often simply react to what happens around us. This can lead to working on the wrong things and wasting our time.

In contrast, by slowing down, you’re more likely to see your projects in a detached way. This leads to seeing them more clearly, making more effective decisions and being more productive in your actions.