Cool Down: Getting Further by Going Slower

INTRODUCTION

THE SLOW MOVEMENT: WHO NEEDS IT?

Let's get this straight, right from the beginning. This is a book about the Slow movement, and whether it has any place in modern business. But this is not a book about how nice it feels to slow down and drift through life. It's a book about:

• Getting ahead

• Getting things done

• Staying employable

• Staying employed, and it's about

• How to do the important things fast.

Fast is important. In an age of 24/7 business, of overloaded schedules, of wireless access and a ceaseless need to stay in the loop, there isn't much tolerance among working people for a Huckleberry Finn approach to managing the day—lazy afternoons, long lunches, and taking time to observe the sun traverse the sky. We all may wish we could take this approach, but few of us have a realistic expectation of getting there any time soon. There's just too much to do, and it all needs to get done now.

Everywhere you turn you hear people talking about their ever-increasing task load; that the workday has extended to 18 hours or more; that email and wireless PDA devices are addictive and that people are using them, or are feeling pressured into using them, well into the hours that used to be reserved for personal life. This, it seems, is the new norm.

In spite of this, there are others who profess the value of going more slowly. They say they're part of a Slow movement. They represent a collection of organizations and individuals that together advocates working slower, speaking slower, eating ...