Slow Work Manifesto
The Slow Work Manifesto is a set of principles developed by Life Skills That Matter to help you create work that works for you.
Slow Work is not simply about doing less work, but rather, doing work that matters within the limitations of your attention, energy and time.
#1 Work Within Your Limitations
You have limited attention, energy and time.
Stop fighting those limitations and start working with them.
Your sharpest mental capacity is limited to an average of four hours per day for doing your best work.
Attempting to work more than that regularly is unsustainable.
Working within your nature will build a habit of creating quality work over the long term.
If you deny your natural limitations, you are living out of alignment with yourself and you will eventually burn out.
#2 Do Work That Matters
Everything is not a priority. Not all tasks should be treated equally. Put your effort into tasks that have the most impact on your security, happiness and satisfaction.
Turn your “to-do list” into a list of priorities. Do what matters most to you first.
#3 Focus On The Long Term
Discover your pace for living life. Don’t worry about keeping up with others.
Focus on keeping up with yourself.
Live with intention, by building habits in alignment with your values, needs and abilities.
Stop chasing after the ideals and standards of others. Define your own instead.
#4 Enough Is Good Enough
Before you start working on any given tasks, first define what “done” means.
Your “best ever” version is the upper limit of your potential, but don’t treat it as your standard.
Do your best at any given moment with the resources you have available to you.
Your sources of attention, energy and time are constantly fluctuating.
Some days you have more to work with than others. Some days it’s less.
Work with what you’ve got now and be good with it.
#5 Recognize Your Options
You have more options than you realize in any given circumstance.
We resist exploring other options because it challenges us in ways that make us feel uncomfortable.
Making tough choices means getting really honest with yourself.
When you deny the existence of alternatives, you give your power and energy away to someone else.
Not making a choice is a choice in and of itself.
It’s not the one you really want, so why choose it?
#6 Stop Asking For Permission
When you do the work you feel you’re supposed to do instead of the work you want to do, you’re asking for permission to feel safe and secure.
Humans are hardwired to desire acceptance by other humans.
The only right way to do anything is the way that feels right to you.
Stop trusting the voices of others more than your inner voice.
#7 What Makes You Weird, Makes You Valuable
Conforming undermines the unique value of your talents, experiences and qualities.
No one like you has ever walked the earth before and no one like you will ever again.
Don’t define yourself by comparing yourself to others.
Your most valuable opportunity is to just be yourself.
It also takes a lot less energy than trying to be someone you’re not.
#8 Take Time To Restore
You’re not a robot. You’re a human.
You need time to replenish your energy.
Your brain needs breaks to absorb, process and store all the information you’re constantly consuming.
Tending to your mental hygiene is the most productive action you can take to feel more accomplished.
#9 Challenge Your Assumptions
Before you take on any task, whether important or mundane, ask yourself, “Why do I need to do this?”
If you struggle to know why it needs to get done, don’t do it.
If you’re doing it to make someone else happy without it giving you any sense of purpose, don’t do it.
If you’ve been doing something a certain way for years just because that’s what you’ve always done, stop and question yourself, “Why am I still doing this?”
Stop doing work that takes away from doing what matters most to you.
#10 Practice Regular Reflection
Slow down. Better yet, come to a full stop more often.
Reflect regularly by checking in to see how you feel about anything you are doing.
What’s working for you?
What’s not?
You are your most important client. You are also your most important employee. Treat yourself as you would them.
Question everything.
Is working more worth it?
What if I worked less?
Is working faster better or would I better off slowing down?
Do I need more or do I already have enough?
Know yourself for yourself, so you can work at a pace that makes sense for you and no one else.
Working more slowly doesn’t mean you’re “not a good worker.”
It means you’re honoring your individual uniqueness, your contributions, your limitations and the humanity of others to become a better worker.
Start working more slowly by creating work that works for you!
Check out our Career Clarity Community of Practice to begin designing work that works for you.
