How to Slow the Heck Down When the World's Speeding Up

“Move fast and break things” was the motto of Generation Zak.

And while we’ve seen significant progress with this mantra, we’re also left with a lot of broken shit.

Biggest accident? Ourselves – and our teams.

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change whiplash is real

Before we get into how to slow down, it’s important to know why we’re feeling the way we feel, and – most importantly – that the readers of this post are absolutely not alone.

In 2022, 72% of employees across industries felt overwhelmed by changes in their workplace. Since then, things have only accelerated.

Digging into specific industries this year, we found that 80% of marketers say their field has “changed more in the last three years than in the last 50.” Additionally, ongoing research in industries like sales shows how important entire roles are in this new era of AI transformation.

Meanwhile, entire generations want to slow down time. Most recently, over 17 million TikTokers made “The Millennial Skip” go viral. The phrase refers to feeling as if you’ve been dramatically teleported from one era of life to another due to the multi-year shock of COVID-19. (And, while it hit the Millennial generation as a young adult, married with children, most severely, other generations certainly weren’t immune.)

Yes! It feels like time is moving faster than ever before and there’s no way to catch up. But, really, you No To slow things down would mean sacrificing progress.

In fact, a more thoughtful approach can accelerate success through vision alignment and increased productivity on the tasks that really move you forward. This way.

How to slow down the pace of progress?

1. Tackle one task at a time.

We become useless at multitasking and lose up to 40% When we try to convince ourselves about our productivity, we are unable to do so.

Just now. to stop.

“You can do two things at once, but you can’t focus effectively on two things at once,” says Gary Keller, author of. one thing,

Companies need to consider launching one high-level organizational change initiative at a time.

We get it — the pandemic has forced most companies to spin like a drunken figure skater, but this is your friendly reminder to finally take a breath.

As you determine the best way to slow down in your role on the organizational front, these simple daily tips can inspire your team to more focused work:

• Calendar Blocking: Encourage team members to block out parts of your calendar for specific tasks or to just focus on them. Let them know that they don’t need to be available for meetings and collaboration all the time.
• Shared priority lists: Ask team members to share their top three daily priorities and focus on them before doing anything else. This helps people support each other instead of distracting them.
• Single-working day: Set aside different days of the week to focus on different aspects of the business (e.g., customer service, product development, etc.). If a full day is not possible, divide it into morning and afternoon sessions.

2. Take a tech timeout (or two).

Y’all, it’s time to put a stop to the constant barrage of information.

Bill Gates takes the oath of his annual “Think week,” where he retreats to a cabin in the woods to contemplate and concentrate creativity,

Okay, we don’t all have a bougie cabin, but there are other ways to implement this exercise.

Digital detox sessions: Schedule regular intervals where team members completely unplug for an hour or two to focus on non-digital tasks.

Remember: To make this work, they can’t be overburdened with digital tasks in the first place, otherwise they’ll get angry at you for taking less time to get the job done.

Notification management: Encourage employees to manage and customize their notifications to reduce distractions, especially during focus time.

Thoughtful meetings: If you have the luxury of seeing your team IRL, hold meetings where technology is banned – just the meeting of minds and the flow of ideas.

3. Embrace purposeful pauses.

The period of rest is as important as the period of work. Research The report published by Microsoft shows that even a 10-minute break between meetings can reduce stress to a great extent.

Don’t believe it? Take a look at these brain scans.

This is your brain. it’s your mind Relentless Zoom calls.

: Microsoft

leads to stress making bad decisionsSo beyond just being a thoughtful gesture, giving people a break between meetings also makes great business sense.

Other ways you can incorporate quiet breaks into your team’s workflow:

• Attention: It may sound pretty crunchy, but we do it ourselves and it works. And here’s a secret: Meditation is actually just a brain nap.
• Eat carefully: Encourage team members to enjoy leisurely meals away from workspaces (which means no eating at your desk for WFH-ers!).
• resilience: Take a note from Patagonia’s leaders. Allow personalized schedules where you or your employees can incorporate calming routines, such as short afternoon walks or breaks when surf’s Up,

final thoughts

Instead of “move fast and break things,” let’s “move purposefully and build things.”

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Editor’s note: This article was originally published in our Trends newsletter in October and has been reproduced for HubSpot blog readers. In the process, some light edits were made to add new information, emerging data, and additional headings for the blog-platform reader experience.