Slow Down Now

How to slow down [... creativity is as important to us in this century as literacy was in the past]

1. Drink a cup of tea, put your feet up and stare idly out of the window. Warning: Do not attempt this while driving.

2. Do one thing at a time. Remember multitasking is a moral weakness (except for women who have superior brain function.)

3. Do not be pushed into answering questions. A response is not the same as an answer. Ponder, take your time.

4. Learn our Slow Manifesto.

5. Yawn often. Medical studies have shown lots of things, and possibly that yawning may be good for you.

6. Spend more time in bed. You have a better chance of cultivating your dreams (not your aspirations.)

7. Read the slow stories.

8. Spend more time in the bathtub. (See letter from Major Smythe-Blunder.)

9. Practice doing nothing. (Yes this is the difficult one.)

10. Avoid too much seriousness. Laugh, because you're live on earth for a limited time only.

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Getting things done might all be well and good, but which things do you want to get done? Are you sure? That is a question that needs thinking about.

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You never see self-help books on procrastination. But I think there is a need for How to Procrastinate.

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Now here is where minimum effort comes in. If you can achieve the same result with a lot of effort or minimum effort which would you choose?

To my mind the answer is easy. Think how much effort it takes to drive a stick shift. When you learned it took a lot of thinking about. It took a lot of practice. You spent all that time crashing the gears and making a terrible noise. But once you mastered it, it only took a very tiny effort.

A better example is a swimmer. The poor swimmer splashes about using up lots of energy and getting nowhere. The accomplished swimmer uses minimum effort. She glides though the water with ease.

It’s a paradox: maximal effort with a goal of minimal effort. Ease up, slow down, and embrace counter-urgency.

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Educational guru, Sir Ken Robinson [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html], says, creativity is as important to us in this century as literacy was in the past. It’s a survival skill. Whether designing a life to include a personal world outside of the demands of commerce, or thinking through problems in new ways, creativity needs to emerge from a place of gestation, rest, flexibility, and balance.


Adapted from the source: http://slowdownnow.org/ - Slow Down Now - The official website of the International Institute for Not Doing Much.