Why Am I Rushing?

I was struggling to find a topic I wanted to write about this week. I always have a running list of ideas for posts, but none of them were giving me the fire I usually like to have going into writing an article. As I was finishing up some other tasks, I found myself stressed and rushing through them. This tension was brought on by the fact that I didn’t know what I wanted to do next, so on a Monday morning I already felt behind on my tasks for the week and started rushing through what I was doing.

woman's hands typing at a computer that is sitting on a desk with notebooks an a pencil

Have you ever found yourself in a situation like this? I know I do all too often. Yet today it stopped me in my tracks when I came to the realization that rushing was decreasing the quality of the work I was doing right now. So not only did I not have a plan for what would come next, but I was also doing a poor job on the task that I was already doing. It led me to consider how often I rush and what is truly gained from it.

long skinny waterfall gently rushing through the evergreen mountains

What Does Rushing Produce?

With all this rushing I found myself doing, I took a deeper look at what that rushing was producing in me. If it’s going to be something I spend a lot of time doing, I want it to be worthwhile. The most obvious benefit of rushing is that you are able to accomplish more tasks in a shorter period of time. And perhaps that is often true. Although if I’m being honest with myself, I know that this isn’t always the case. I know that rushing can also make me feel scattered and frazzled which often causes tasks to take longer than if I was just focused on doing one thing at a time. For the sake of the argument, let’s say that more often than not, rushing does lead to getting more done. What kinds of costs does this pace of life have?

Stress: Rushing almost always leaves me feeling stressed and on edge. I can literally feel the tension in my body when I am rushing. My left neck, shoulder, and hip all tighten up. My breathing becomes more shallow. I sometimes even develop tension headaches.

Fear/Anxiety: For whatever reason, rushing always give me a sense of fear that I am not doing enough. Which seems counter-intuitive. You think the more I get done, the better it would feel. Yet, the exact opposite is true. It instead creates feelings of fear and anxiety that I should be doing more. On the other hand, when I do something slowly and more intentionally; I feel more grounded and content with the amount of work that I got done.

Poor Quality: Speaking of doing something well. It is almost without fail that when I am rushing, the quality of my work drops significantly. Sure, I might be getting more done, but I am not really doing any of it that well? The answer most of the time is a resounding NO. I am distracted and hurried which leads to mistakes or just lesser quality. I see this most often in the meals I make. The ones I take my time on always taste better than the ones that are rushed.

Fractured Relationships: The most important thing that suffers from my rushing are my relationships. I don’t take the time to check in with friends in need, truly listen to my husband when he tells me about his day, or care for people in the same way when I am hurried. Rushing does not leave room for people. It focuses solely on getting the next thing done.

It became very obvious pretty quickly that the benefits of rushing don’t outweigh the downsides. Let me be clear, that there are times that rushing can be beneficial such as in a true emergency. But that should be on occasion and certainly not an everyday normal habit I want to be practicing. The obvious solution is to slow down, but practically speaking, what does this actually look like?

hands of two woman holding freshly made donuts in front of a blue harbor with boats

There Is A Better Way

Slowing down to me has meant simply setting out to accomplish less. Instead of a giant running to-do list each day that I try to accomplish as much from as possible (this is actually how I used to create my to-do lists), I now focus on 2-3 major tasks that I want to complete in a day outside of my normal day-to-day chores and activities.

I have found that this method actually allows me to be more productive over the course of the days, weeks, and months which surprised me. When I thought about why, I realized I would work so hard for a few days or a week and then end up completely burnt out and in need extended periods of rest to gear myself back up for the next round. Working a slower but steadier pace helps me chip away at my goals and tasks more consistently which in the end leads to getting more done than the burnout/rest cycle.

The other thing that has really helped in slowing down is how it allows me more margin to think about what tasks are actually necessary and which ones are just a waste of time. When I would hurry from one task to the next, I wouldn’t take the time to consider if what I was doing was actually beneficial towards my goals. I would just charge ahead doing it. This has allowed me to cut out so many tasks that I thought were necessary but really ended up being a waste of time and energy. This seems obvious when considering the phrase “work harder not smarter”, but I was missing the whole point in my rushing. Slowing down has created a peaceful, calming rhythm to life that I strive for every day.

Are there tasks in your day that are not adding as much value as the work your putting?

How can you create a daily schedule that emphasizes a calming flow over rushing from one task to the next?