1. Turn the PDA off as soon as you walk through your front door
2. Leave the PDA at home when you go on holiday, or have your hotel lock it up
3. Read and respond to email only twice a day, if anything is urgent they’ll phone you
4. Play more cards and board games
5. Have a garden, even if it’s only an herb garden on the window sill
6. Drive less; walk more
7. Slow down, and really enjoy your food
8. Read before bed
9. Ban fast food, and learn about slow food instead
10. Don’t eat in the car
11. Don’t work AT ALL on holiday
12. Don’t try to fill up every moment of silence
13. Do one thing at a time, and do it well
14. Set aside time to do nothing at all
15. Give up the notion that the world will come to a standstill if you miss a day of work
16. Give up the notion that being busy equals being important
17. Enroll your children in only one activity at a time
18. Move to the country, a village, or a small town
19. Be aware of what you’re doing (ie don’t arrive home not knowing how you got there)
20. Vacation at home, and give the stress of traveling a miss
21. Go on more bike rides
22. Spend more time with your grandparents
23. Give up on having it all, and doing it all
24. Listen more
25. Forget the past and the future, and live in the right now
26. Have more in-person conversations, and fewer via text or email
27. Own less, so that you’ll have less to maintain
28. Work fewer hours
29. Live within your means
30. Have a home you can afford
31. Have a lifestyle you can sustain
32. Notice the seasons changing, and the children growing
33. Learn how to just be
34. Give up on trying to impress others
35. Do less
36. Get to know your neighbours
37. Identify your time wasters, and banish them
38. Identify the things that matter to you, and take care of them before you expend your energy on less important matters
39. Set specific time aside for your partner and your children
40. Work and shop closer to home
41. Tell your children fairy tales
42. Stop offering to do everything for everyone else
43. Make a career out of something you truly enjoy
44. Be prepared to live on less
45. Change your thinking about how much you need
46. Stop trying to run other people’s lives
47. Learn to say “No”
48. Don’t feel guilty for saying no
49. Don’t let others make you feel obligated
50. Learn that fast is just an illusion
51. Break the addiction to multitasking
52. Stretch before getting out of bed in the morning
53. Stretch and meditate before going to bed in the evening
54. Identify the most important bits of your job, and do those to perfection
55. Don’t try to get to your destination more quickly by constantly changing traffic lanes, just take a deep breath and let it take how long it takes
56. Take pride in a job well done
57. Take pride in a day completely wasted
58. Incorporate working-out into activities with the family, rather than going to the gym alone then coming home to play with the kids
59. Have your kids practice their reading while you cook dinner, instead of them watching television or playing video games
60. Eat at the dinner table
61. Become an expert at daydreaming
62. Go on holidays that rejuvenate you, rather than those that exhaust you
63. Understand that planning could very well be a complete waste of time in many instances
64. Don’t succumb to the pressure to do more
65. Learn that just because you don’t want to pay the price that the job requires, it doesn’t mean that you can’t do the job
66. Take old-fashioned coffee breaks in the morning and afternoon, and leave the office for lunch
67. Be focused on your work when you are at your desk, and make the most of the time that you’re working
68. Enjoy the Elegance of Slow
69. Realize how few mistakes are made when you slow down just a bit
70. Realize how much more in control you feel when you slow down just a bit
71. Remember that not everything can be urgent, even if a message is marked as such
72. Don’t allow anyone else’s false sense of urgency to rub off on you
73. Learn that you’ll get more done by slowing down and getting to it, than you will by worrying about how you’re going to get it all done
74. Don’t confuse being busy with being productive at work
75. Delight in the rare occurrence of quiet, rather than thinking of something to do to fill up the time
76. Spend more time in hammocks
77. Don’t finish other people’s sentences, give them time to speak for themselves
78. Go for a walk with your children, and let them do all the talking
79. Make cookies from scratch
80. Avoid power, fame, or fortune
81. Stay grounded, even if you gain the above
82. Buy less, and reward old fashioned craftsmanship
83. Don’t give in to unreasonable demands on your time
84. Find the balance that works for you, and stick to it unapologetically
85. Cultivate hobbies that restore your creativity
86. Care more about your relationships with others than about career success
87. Redefine a successful life, outside of how the world defines it
88. Don’t be distracted by the latest trends in fashion, gadgets, or technology
89. Don’t be a slave to anything
90. Don’t be embarrassed to say that you’re satisfied with less
91. Don’t be embarrassed to say that you’d rather stay in on a Saturday night
92. Don’t be embarrassed to jump off the fast track
93. Don’t be embarrassed to stay home to raise the children
94. If you’re able, move to a country that values a slower pace of life
95. Learn to create peace within yourself, so that you aren’t swayed by outside chaos
96. Care about the world around you
97. Turn down the promotion if it threatens your slow
98. Don’t drive so fast that you miss the scenery
99. Study the slow movement
100. Be an intelligent optimist
{ 4 comments }


