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Episode 186: How To Slow Down (& Why Every Lawyer Needs To Slow Down)
Your calendar is so full it looks like an ugly patchwork quilt of overlapping green, orange, blue, red and grey. Jumping from one emergency to another, you always feel rushed. You’d like to slow down, but how? Today, you’ll learn how to slow down (and all the reasons for why to slow down).
Inside of today’s episode, you’ll learn:
- What slowing down really means.
- Why slowing down speeds up your results.
- The 3 things to start doing in order to slow down more often.
Recommended Supplemental Episodes (Past Lessons Learned):
Episode #22: Your Secret Ingredient to Stress Less (Taking Breaks)
Episode #177: Prioritizing To Do Less, Achieve More
Episode #144: Emotional Regulation Skills Every Lawyer Needs
Ready to Master Your Legal Mindset?
Learning how to slow down is a practice that involves mindfulness and a mindset shift. Which is where the Legal Mindset Mastery Toolkit comes into play.
Download the Toolkit to get 10 evidence-based mindset & stress management tools (you can use in a matter of minutes) that rewire your mind to think, feel and be your best. Bonus: these practices will help your mind to slow down.
Episode Transcript
[00:01:08] Hello. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Life & Law Podcast. This is your host, Heather Moulder. And as usual, I’m very excited to have you with me here today.
[00:01:18] So today we are going to be talking about how to slow down the pace. And the reason this is coming at the beginning of this year, towards the beginning of this year, is this. I have been hearing a lot from clients, from people on LinkedIn, and elsewhere in conversations about how wonderful the holidays were for slowing down. And if only you could be that way more often. Well, here’s the deal, y’all. You can.
[00:01:49] And I want to talk very seriously and specifically about how to slow down the pace.
What Exactly Does Slowing Down Mean?
[00:01:56] So let’s first get into what does that actually mean? What do I mean by slowing down? There are three things here.
[00:02:06] Number one, creating space for thinking more clearly. Thinking space, right? Space for nothing. Space that’s actually free time inside of your calendar so that all those thoughts that you feel jumbled up inside that keep spinning and spinning and spinning can get out of your head and start making a little more sense. So free space for thinking, for creativity, for clarity.
Number two, having some time that is absolutely not scheduled. So it’s scheduled, but it’s scheduled for nothing. Okay? So that you get to pick what you want and need in the moment based on how you feel, based on what you desire, want, and need. No more ugly quilt patchwork calendar that we mentioned at the outset of this episode.
[00:03:02] And then finally, number three, choosing to be productive slowly. Some people call this concept slow productivity. The phrase was coined by Cal Newport, a computer science professor and author of Digital Minimalism and (this one you’re really going to love if you haven’t heard of it) A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in An Age of Communication Overload. I know, guys, it’s hard for us lawyers to even imagine that, right?
Common Productivity Fallacy
[00:03:31] There’s this idea that most high achievers, and in my personal experience, almost every lawyer I’ve ever met has taken on. And it’s the idea that if we work hard and harder and we work faster and faster, we will have more time later for the stuff we really want to be doing. This is a productivity fallacy because what happens is it often leads us to jam pack our calendar and our schedule. We say yes too often, we end up over committed and that means we’re crazy busy, right? But here’s the thing, y’all. Being busy doesn’t necessarily mean being affected busy, even efficient, they’re not the same thing as being effective. So I want you to start thinking about replacing that efficiency thinking that you probably have with effectiveness. Because effectiveness is what real productivity is.
[00:04:34] And you’re not very effective when you have a jam packed schedule, spinning thoughts and no time to yourself.
[00:04:42] I want you, before we move on, to consider a couple of things. Ask yourself, what am I busying myself with?
[00:04:51] Am I busy with things that are truly important to me? Or no, Am I busy on other stuff? Things that are other people’s priorities, things that aren’t even priorities but I feel obligated to do them because I committed to them or because of the role that I play at my firm or within my family or somewhere else?
[00:05:11] Do you find yourself at the end of a really busy day wondering, what did I actually get done today? That’s very common when you focus on efficiency as productivity and busyness as opposed to effectiveness.
[00:05:25] How well are you working right now when you’re so busy?
[00:05:30] What are your energy levels? Is there space for creative thinking and real problem solving? I mean, let’s get real, guys. Being a great lawyer involves thinking time so that you can problem solve, so that you can think and be more creative in your solutions.
What Is Slow Productivity?
[00:05:48] So slow productivity is about three main things.
[00:05:52] First, it’s about doing less by identifying and focusing on the high impact things that truly matter. So that is what your focus is. Now, it may not be all you do because let’s get real, there are other things, but it’s probably 75 to 80%, maybe even 85% of the things you’re doing are the high impact things. That matter. Number two, working at a natural pace for the work involved. Not based on getting more done in less time, not based on getting all the quick stuff done either. This is about being really intentional about what am I working on? What’s reality here?
[00:06:33] Not based on pressure and unreasonable expectations, but on how I can do the work well. Which leads us to number three, focusing on quality over quantity.
[00:06:49] So if you have not listened to my podcast about prioritization, I want you to go listen to it after today’s episode. That should be your next one. I recorded that podcast very early on and I will have a link to it. Actually, I reran it over the holiday season, so I’ll probably link to that one. But go listen to that because that is a key to being truly productive in this way. Human beings are not built for high intensity work most of the time. Yet we lawyers, we hold ourselves to that standard, don’t we?
[00:07:26] Which brings me to the benefits of slowing down.
[00:07:31] Because no matter how much you want to slow down, you’re probably having trouble actually doing it right? Like it’s easier to do it over the holidays. More people take time off. Unless you are like, I was a finance or other transactional lawyer who had a million things closing at the end of the year, in which case maybe your slowdown period, that’s enforced, that is more natural, is right now. But many lawyers don’t have that. They’re starting to gear back up again.
[00:08:00] And over the holidays, when more things are closed, there’s less court going on, right? It’s easier, it’s more enforced. But how do you actually do it when things are busier, when there’s more pressure to deliver? That’s the problem. No matter how much you actually want to slow down, you’re probably going to have trouble doing it. And so before we get into how to start slowing down, I want to ensure you understand all the benefits of slowing down. Because if you are not on board with these y’all, you’re going to have trouble making the necessary changes, the choices you need to be making to actually slow down yourself.
Why Slow Down? The Big Benefits.
[00:08:45] So research shows that allowing for unstructured time boosts creativity and problem solving abilities. Periods of rest and reflection are crucial for the creative process, allowing for better ideation, incubation and evaluation.
[00:09:03] And we lawyers like to claim that we are innovative. I have a newsflash for you. You probably are not if you’re not slowing down regularly because your busyness does not allow for it. And again, lawyers, lawyers are creatives. We need to have great problem solving we need to be able to think outside the box. We need to be able to take a situation and think creatively about it so that we can get to better solutions for our clients, so that we can see risk and guard against it. Right?
[00:09:37] Benefit number two. Contrary to the belief that constant busyness leads to higher productivity, studies show that intentional breaks and a slower pace enhances overall performance and productivity. Now, I talked about this on the podcast a long while back as well. This need to take regularly scheduled breaks throughout the day. So I am going to put a link to that episode. I want you to also go listen to that one if you haven’t, or even if you haven’t recently, recently. Because I do find that it’s really good to remind ourselves about the why and then how, because we go into some very specific things around how to do it and what you can do during these break periods. So we’re not going to cover that here. Go back and listen to that episode.
[00:10:28] Research also suggests that our brains perform optimally when we allow for breathing space. Regular breaks during the day will help prevent fatigue. That leads to distraction and it helps with a sustained attention and focus, which of course will lead to better overall performance.
[00:10:49] Finally, research clearly shows that providing your brain with breathing space improves mental well being. So it reduces stress, it improves sleep quality.
Chronic stress can disrupt sleep patterns.
[00:11:06] Incorporating moments of calmness into daily routines leads to better sleep. And we all know better sleep also leads to more productivity, better creativity. You just think better, right?
[00:11:21] Add all of this together and you’re going to feel better, you’re going to show up better and you’re going to be better at work and in life.
And when I say better again, more creative, a better problem solver, so quicker to come up with the right answer. Less time thinking, less time analyzing. Better work product as a whole that is overall much, much more effective at your job and in your day to day.
[00:11:49] All right, so now let’s get into the how what I promised from the very beginning.
How do you actually start to slow down?
How do you slow down?
I want you to focus in on three main things.
[00:12:07] Number one, schedule recovery breaks into your day. What do I mean by recovery breaks? I’m talking time to get up and move, get out of your chair, get out of your office, even if it’s at home. Get outside if you can. I’m talking time for connection.
[00:12:25] Get down the hall, talk to a colleague, pick up the phone and talk to somebody. If you’re working at home and nobody else is around, connection is important.
[00:12:37] I’m also talking about time for nothing.
[00:12:42] So this again gets you away from that horrible, ugly looking quilt on your calendar of all those colors kind of coinciding with one another and overlapping. You want free space in there, and maybe your free space has a color so that nobody else will schedule over it. If you have that type of a job where others will schedule over you. I have to do this because my clients schedule on a calendar system that I have. So I have to block off time that I know I want in between appointments, right? And that time I go and spend and do my movement.
[00:13:21] I pick up the phone and call my kid sometimes who’s off at College. I take five or 10 minutes just to let my thoughts roam free. These are the types of things I’m talking about. Schedule recovery breaks into your day. And again, I have an entire podcast about how and why to do this. More specifically, go back and listen to that.
[00:13:42] The next thing is incorporate meditation and mindfulness into your daily practices.
[00:13:51] So meditation and mindfulness exercises are a great way to provide short mental breaks within your day. They allow the brain to recharge. They lead to improved focus, especially when you return to tasks. They help you get kind of back at it more quickly after you’ve taken a break.
[00:14:12] And what I would say to this is, don’t overthink it. You don’t have to do the same thing every day. You can if that’s easier for you, but it’s not necessary. Be flexible. Ask daily what it is you need and find really simple ways to do this right. So when you’re taking your daily breaks, you’re scheduling recovery breaks into your day. Incorporate some mindfulness into it. Incorporate a five minute meditation, a three minute meditation when you’re eating, when you’re walking, when you’re exercising. There are tons of mindfulness practices you can do to coincide with those things. So you can utilize these in conjunction with other things.
[00:14:54] And again, that episode that I mentioned about taking breaks has some ideas on how to do this as well.
[00:15:02] I would also add this if you do not have my legal Mindset Mastery toolkit, I highly recommend you get it. And I will put a link to that in the show notes as well. Because inside of that there are 10 strategies and tools for mastering your mindset, reducing stress.
[00:15:20] Some of these are mindfulness techniques and it kind of gives you a step by step on how to utilize them and how to play around with them and incorporate them into your daily practices. Thing number three for how to slow down.
[00:15:37] Start asking why this My friends, is the most important thing of all. This is where that intentionality comes into play. So anytime you commit yourself to doing something, anytime you raise your hand, anytime you say yes. Before you do that, you need to step back and think, okay, why?
[00:16:00] Why me? What will this do for me? How will this benefit me and my goals? Ask why? Why do this? And then also flip it around and ask, why not? Why not do this?How might it open me up for other opportunities if I do not do this?
[00:16:24] Ask why. And let me just say, this applies to really everything you do, right? So when you’re looking at your day ahead and you’re deciding the things that you’re prioritizing, ask why. When you’re putting something off, ask why put it off. Why not now, when you were not delegating something to someone, when you know you could, but you think you could get it done more quickly, right? Ask why.
[00:16:55] Challenge yourself. Okay, really, really, why is this necessary? Do I need to be doing this? Is there somebody else who could do it just as good or good enough?
[00:17:08] Let me just note that that’s an area that we all need to work in. We often say good. You know, can somebody else do this? Yeah, sure. But it won’t be as good as me. But it won’t be as fast as me. Well, number one, that may or may not be true. But number two, it never will be as good as you or fast as you if you never give. And then number three, as good as you is probably not the right standard.
The standard should be good enough. So that’s a bonus tip, right? When you’re asking why and why not for the things that you are committing to doing in a given day, week, month, or generally when it’s on a project by project basis, you want to make sure that you really are giving as much away to others as you can.
[00:17:57] And you want to ask the why and the why not. But then you also, you gotta make sure the standards are correct because we impose these false standards of the standard is perfection. The standard is good as me. When that’s unreasonable.
[00:18:13] Good enough. The standard should be good enough.
[00:18:18] Okay, so quick recap.
[00:18:23] Slowing down is not just for the holidays when we’re into a forced slowdown. It’s not just for when we go take vacation.
[00:18:31] It’s really to your benefit, to your client’s benefit, to your firm, your employer’s benefit, to everyone’s benefit. If you learn to slow down by creating space just for thinking, by having time that might be scheduled on your calendar, but it’s scheduled for nothing so that you can choose in the moment. And finally, by practicing slow productivity, you will show up better, you will feel better, you will do better for all involved.
[00:19:07] And in order to do that, schedule that time for recovery breaks. Incorporate meditation and mindfulness in your day to day and ask why and why not. That is it for this week. Bye for now.
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I’m Heather Moulder, a former Big Law partner who traded in my multi-million dollar practice to help lawyers achieve balanced success. Because success shouldn’t mean having to sacrifice your health, relationships or sanity.
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