Using My Slow Mode Too

A while back, I read an article by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, The Brain’s Fast Mode and it resonated with me a lot.

"The problem is that my mind isn’t in a mode for focusing on the writing. It’s in Fast Mode, brought on by the processing of email, where I will make quick decisions on emails, take quick action, and quickly dispose of them."

Fast Mode is an apt description of my working style. I like to be efficient. I always feel a need to make a decision quickly so that I can act on it, get it done and move on to something else. Like Leo said in the article, I like to "make quick decisions on [almost everything], take quick action, and quickly dispose of them. " And I do feel the effect that he mentioned:

"Being in Fast Mode leads to constant switching, and constant busy-ness. It leads to overwork, because when do you switch it off? It leads to exhaustion, because we never give ourselves breathing room."

When I burn out, I will try to slow down the pace of my life; but I will be back in Fast Mode quickly. So, my first thought is that maybe I have been rushing too much and I should slow down.

Fast Mode or Slow Mode

Yes, I should slow down but not all the time. After putting more thought into this, I realised that it is not about switching to Slow Mode entirely. It is because context matters. Many factors influence how fast or slow I should act and react. Some factors are the amount of time I have to make a decision and carry out the action, importance of the issue at hand, seriousness of the consequence and my priorities. In different contexts, the factors are usually different. While I want to deliberate properly when deciding a career path, I do not want to spend too much time thinking about what to eat for dinner tonight. In Leo's article, he gave a good advice on this:

"Learn to recognize when you’re in Fast Mode, and practice switching to Slow Mode now and then. It’s essential to doing all the things that are really important."

From now on, while I continue to operate in Fast Mode to be efficient, I will look out for situations that calls for Slow Mode and set aside an appropriate amount of time for them, instead of rushing through them.