In the industrial era, the people that did more stuff—faster—added more value to the world. Efficiency was the buzzword. That’s no longer the case. Now, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

We are already bumping up on the limits of how fast we can do our work—and we will never execute faster than AI or technology. Instead, we add value through: 

• Our ability to make good decisions (and avoiding the action imperative)
• Working well with other people (trust is built slowly and is very fragile)
• Verifying execution and making adjustments quickly (double checking you didn’t miss anything, making sure you’re still heading in the right direction)

This type of work requires a different approach to speed: the best way to move fast isn’t to do it directly—but to take an indirect path. It’s a path of slowness in practice.

There is a sense of clarity that can only emerge from slowness. Rushing blocks this sense of clarity. That’s one of the limitations of a bias for action. It causes you to make mistakes that you could have avoided if you just gave yourself a bit of time to think. 

Rushing slows things down, slowness speeds things up

In 2005, Elon Musk had a decision to make. He needed a place to test SpaceX’s rockets, and there were two sites available:

• The Vandenberg Air Force Base which was a short drive, less than 200 miles away from SpaceX’s factory—which required dealing with the military’s bureacracy and requirements
• The Omelek Island was a small island in the Kwajalein Atoll, which was thousands of miles away from SpaceX’s factory—and only accessible by flight

Because Elon was caught up in a bias for action—but really, more like a trance of rushing—he chose the much less convenient site at Omelek Island. While SpaceX could take action right away, it would also run into a lot of unintended slowness later. 

Can you imagine? Every time there was a new part or piece the team needed, they would have to fly it in. The climate was completely different from the factory, which caused components on the spaceship to compress or expand unexpectedly. 

“Every now and then you shoot yourself in the foot,” Elon said in Walter Isaacson’s biography. “If you had to pick a path that reduced the probability of success, it would be to launch from an inaccessible tropical island.” If Elon only had the clarity to consider that beforehand. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

The best way to go faster isn’t to just do more stuff—which only gets us stuck in a rush or hurry, and causes problems that slow us down later on. Instead, the key is to slow down enough to make sure everything is done right, and make sure to minimize mistakes of ineptitude.

Hasten, slowly

Thousands of years ago, emperors used the phrase “Festina lente,” to encourage a sense of urgency while maintaining a sense of stillness. They wanted their people to move quickly—but not so fast that they would make mistakes and need to apologize. This requires a sense of discernment.

Perhaps the best way to know you’re doing it right is to gauge your sense of presence. You’ll know you’re hastening slowly when you’re moving fast, and slow enough to maintain a sense of awareness of what’s happening around you. 

Author Tim Ferriss isn’t a fan of the word, “Patience,” because he sees it often used as an excuse for complacency or laziness—but he does see value in slowness. (In fact, I first heard, “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast,” from Tim’s podcast.) Instead, Tim is focused on paying attention. He says, “I have a confidence that I am going to see things that most people are going to miss simply because they are rushing.”

Being aware extends beyond your external environment, to your internal experience as well. Tara Brach—once a guest of Tim’s podcast—asks in her book, Radical Acceptance, “What if we were to intentionally stop our mental computations and our rushing around and, for a minute or two, simply pause and notice our inner experience?” 

For me, the best way to set my days up for awareness is to meditate and journal in the morning. Without these two exercises, I can very easily fall into the trance of rushing and get tangled up in my planning and projects—but with them, I can maintain a sense of awareness throughout the day. I can sense my own energy levels, and also facilitate better conversations with the people I work with. I can remember to make time to listen to their problems, and to better understand what a solution might look like and how we can approach it.

I also don’t overextend myself—there’s always some extra wiggle room, so that I can take on tasks or inquiries that need more time sensitive responses.

Step back, and look at the forest

Doing your work well means not constantly sprinting to the finish line, one project to the next. Instead, it requires a process of walking each step at the pace you can manage every day. 

Rather than considering age milestones, billable hours, or project weeks, think about your work in decades. This perspective will enable you to endure through life’s inevitable setbacks, as well as the grueling process of improving your skills. Kent Haruf, who spent 20 years writing before publishing his first book, was not rushing. 

Neither was Ke Huy Quan, who had quit acting when he realized the market wasn’t ready for his work. Two decades later, he watched Crazy Rich Asians, and realized the timing was right. He returned to acting and signed a supporting role in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. He says, “Much of what it means to have perseverance is to have patience. So be patient, and don’t give up.”

Whenever you feel the urge to rush—either through your tasks, or to sprint towards your goal—remember: your job isn’t to do more or faster. Efficiency isn’t the goal; excellence is. And excellence requires slowness sometimes. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.