I used to think being “on top of things” meant being ahead.
Inbox zero. Calendar full. Brain fried. Everything planned to a T.
I treated efficiency like a personality trait — maybe even a love language.
I grew up in an Asian household where usefulness equalled worth. Your value was measured in what you bring to the table. That was how you showed care – by doing.
And then I entered the workplace, where apparently finishing something quickly is the best way to earn… more work.
At some point, I started to wonder: when did “being productive” stop feeling fulfilling and start feeling like a full-time anxious pursuit?
The Hum of Hurry
Urgency is sneaky. To me, it’s the thing that keeps my brain running ten, fifteen, hundred steps ahead. The future is mapped out as a checklist of tasks to be completed. At some point, life stopped being exciting, the more the checklist grew, the more stressed I got driving myself crazy to get ahead.
Jann, my cofounder, and I were talking to a client recently when he said something that stuck with us – about how people create fake urgency and then pass it on, just to make others move at their speed. Jann had written about him before, in one of our earlier posts. It was such a small moment, but it left us both thinking.
We rush through projects, through meals, through days – only to realize we don’t remember half of what we’d done. The body is going through the present motions while your mind is already planning the next thing. Productivity without presence is basically speed-running your own life.
I only realised this quite recently and since then my motto when I get too anxious and plan for things is to –
“live in and for the present”
Relearning Fulfillment
Unlearning urgency hasn’t made me less productive. It’s just made me more intentional.
I still have a to-do list, but it looks different now:
- meditate for 5 minutes ✔️
- stretch ✔️
- text my mom back ✔️
- water the basil ✔️
Shockingly, that’s enough.
Because maybe productivity isn’t about proving your worth — it’s about feeling worthwhile while you do the work
The Quiet Win
The world still wants us to hurry. But I’m learning to choose rhythm over rush.
Some days I slip back into the old pattern — moving fast, saying yes too often — but then I catch myself thinking, What if doing less is how I make space to do better?
And that, I think, is the slowest, happiest rebellion I know.
With warmth,
— Mira Sol🍃
theslowedit.org