Productivity is Overrated 🚧
To actually speed up, you first need to learn to slow down. Here's how.
My goal this week is to inspire you to do less.
Which, goes against everything we’ve been taught from a young age.
Many of us struggle because we’re conditioned to believe our worth is measured by our productivity.
From an early age, society drills false values into us, such as efficiency, productivity, and optimization. Great for companies with numeric goals. Not so great for organic beings with souls, purpose, and over 100 billion neurons composing the complex orchestra of being a human.
These values are false because they came from outside of ourselves. They cause us to push through discomfort, ignore our inner needs, and consequently burn out.
By the time we’re adults, our intrinsic motivation is focused on getting ahead, competing, and “winning”, often at the expense of our physical, emotional, and social well-being.
For me, every day used to be waking up to the challenge of taking care of myself. After years of a deteriorating well-being, I asked myself what success felt like. And after spending a lot of time slowing down, my answer was peace, ease, connection, purpose and optimal health.
This cascade effect quietly leads to a dispassionate life:
We aren’t taught the importance of honoring our natural rhythms and cycles.
Without these rituals in place, we have no space to develop clarity on what we truly want
Without clarity, we fill our days with directionless to-dos.
When we spend too much time on directionless to-dos, we wake up one day, standing on the roof of a building we blindly fought so hard to climb, only to realize we don’t like the view.
I’m here to tell you, if you don’t learn how to slow down and figure out what you truly want, this will be you one day, if it isn’t already.
I’m also here to guide you on a life motto I adopted many years ago, “slow down to speed up”.
What happens when you learn how to slow down to speed up:
Stress and anxiety levels decrease, leading to mood regulation and a healthier mindset
Neural connections are strengthened, which enhances problem-solving skills and creativity
Increased clarity and thus more purposeful decision-making
Renewed passion to take action and feel excited to be in the doing again
Living a life that feels purposeful and meaningful, surrounded by people who light you up
Pretty great, but for most people, it’s quite hard to do. Here’s my approach in two simple phases.
🐢 How to Slow Down
The most important step in slowing down is to accept that just as nature operates in cycles and rhythms (e.g., seasons, lunar cycles, circadian rhythms), we also have our own biological rhythms and life cycles. A few examples: our daily sleep-wake cycles, menstrual cycles, and the aging process.
Research by scientist Franz Halberg (and many others) have highlighted the importance of aligning one's activities with our natural rhythms for optimal performance and well-being.
My inspiration is rooted in Taoist philosophy, which emphasizes the importance of living in harmony with natural rhythms and cycles. Taoism suggests that we should adapt to the ebb and flow of life rather than trying to impose rigid systems or schedules. Taoism promotes a more flexible and intuitive approach to living and decision-making, something most of us don’t even know how to even do.
Before you slow down, ask yourself:
When was the last time you spent time alone?
What activities do you have on autopilot you could pause during a slow down period?
When do you feel most like yourself? Where were you? What were you doing? Who were you with? How did you feel?
What’s the longest amount of time you’ve gone without looking at your phone?
How does the idea of slowing down feel for you? What comes up as you imagine doing less for a period of time? What beliefs do you have that are getting in the way of slowing down?
There are different approaches to slowing down — and depending on your personality and responsibilities you’ll have to decide what’s right for you.
3 simple ways to slow down:
Weave “slow down moments” into your day-to-day where you do nothing for a period of time, each day. Lay on your bed awake, put your feet up the wall, take a bath, go on a solo walk or hike in nature, meditate. You’ll notice all of these activities are free. So the only thing that could get in the way here is you. See how it feels to start with 5 or 10 minutes.
Plan a weekend in nature. I wrote a newsletter about my last one. If you have the means to do this I highly recommend it. I find it incredibly helpful to experience what it feels like to live simply. Reduce distractions and plan to do one creative activity (write, paint, cook, play music, dance).
My 3rd suggestion will not be for everyone— assisted psychedelic sessions or ceremonies. I say this with the utmost caution and care and don’t recommend it for anyone who doesn’t already practice 1 and 2, as well as consistently work with a coach or therapist. That said, the work is profound, should you properly integrate the wisdom that surfaces when you do.
Now you have a practice of slowing down and easing your nervous system, you can explore some new reflections.
After you slow down, ask yourself:
Who am I? (you’re the type of person who does or does not do what?)
What do I value most in this life? (list of core values)
What impact do I want to have?
What is my ideal day?
What do I want and what will having that do for me?
🦋 How to speed up
The difference between a habit and a ritual is intention.
A ritual is a deliberate act that connects back to your values and principles. Habits are your brain's way of saving energy by putting regular behaviors on autopilot.
You may have a habit of binge eating popcorn and mindlessly watching Netflix until midnight, but it is not a ritual.
So speeding up looks like deciding what rituals you want to put in place to align to your clarity, and what habits you want to let go of. At Liminal, we use a feedback framework monthly as we reflect on the work we’ve accomplished called “Start, Stop, Continue.”
It’s simple:
What do you want to start doing?
What do you want to stop doing?
What do you want to continue to do?
Something you’ll notice quickly, is how easy it is to align your actions once you can clearly communicate who you are, what you care about and what you want. For example, as I got really specific on the important of peace and ease as values I want to live by, suddenly I was able to notice all the moments I didn’t feel this way, what I was doing and who I was with.
There’s a saying my coach said to me once that stuck: “The attention I’m getting, is the attention I’m giving myself.” So instead of focusing all my actions on changing my external circumstance, I focused first on what actions I could stop, start and continue doing to practice peace and ease on a daily basis.
For the first time, I felt intrinsically motivated to have a mindfulness practice daily — something I’ve struggled to do my whole life but now crave daily.
Once you’re clear about the rituals you want to implement, the rest falls into the “accountability” category. Which I know is often the hardest part for all of us (and why I created Liminal in the first place 😉). You can try out this quiz we created to discover if accountability is the type of coaching you need most right now — you would be a “Habit Stacker or Puzzle Fitter“ archetype if so.
In the meantime, you can start by adding one action into your routine that aligns to your values. I put it in my calendar to make sure I don’t forget. Then build from there.
A few of mine:
I journal for 10 minutes. Sometimes about what I’m grateful for, about my inner critic, or about a time where I felt really safe or inspired.
I have a repeat event each day at 5pm that says “I’m proud of these 3 things”
I go on a walk and listen to an inspiring conversation on Spotify
Now, I’m going to take my own advice and go do nothing for half an hour before jumping into my next meeting.
Give it a try and let me know how it feels.
Slowed down,
Ashley 🦋
CEO + Founder, Liminal
Liminal offers 1:1 coaching in a progress-focused app to help you move through life and career transitions with ease. Schedule your free consultation to be matched with a coach.