Getting More Done Slowly; Zen and the Art of Sandwich Creation

For the past few weeks, I have made a conscious effort to live slowly and it has yielded fantastic results.

Living slowly is essentially the same as living mindfully. It involves making an effort not to rush, and a conscious effort to enjoy the moment. Rather than rushing on to the next activity and then the next, you take your time doing each task, one at a time. You take breaks. You stop when you feel yourself becoming frustrated and pick up again when you decide the time is right.

Last week at work, due to the short work week caused by Good Friday, I had a lot to catch up on. Rather than fall back into my old work habits, which involves powering through, working a ridiculous amount of overtime and stressing myself out to just get it done, I opted for a different approach.

I worked as hard as I could, but I took most of my breaks. Typically, I don’t like to take anything more than a lunch break because I find it slows down my day. This time around, I decided to embrace that, and use the extra time to read.

I did end up staying late a few times, but only about a half hour or so to tie up loose ends and not leave a mess behind. Rather than work 12 hour days, I instead came in on two off days and worked two extra four hour shifts. Though I had to give up two mornings on my days off, I enjoyed it a lot more. I worked the same about but spread it out more reasonably. I took it slow.

As a result of losing those days off, I had a lot to do this weekend. I simply decided to take that slow too. I didn’t want to rush and try to fit everything in. I just let the unimportant things fall away, and I focused on enjoying the day with a friend of mine.

Around lunch time, we realised that doing everything on our agenda wasn’t possible. The following option presented itself; skip lunch and do it all, or slow down.

We were far removed from our regular area of town on a quest for some Passover Coke. There was a clothing store my lady friend wanted to check out since we were never in this particular area. As she perused the clothes, I didn’t rush her as I often do. I noticed a Subway across the parking lot. Though I had wanted to visit the Used Book Market at St. Vital Centre, I decided that since I have about 50 unread books at home that lunch was more important. The Book Market could wait another day.

The lunch we ate was a validation of the slow theory.

We were the only ones there, and the resident sandwich artist tool his time making our sandwiches. The bread was fresh, the tomatoes were evenly spaced and the mustard was just right. The soup was like homemade and was the best chicken noodle I’ve ever had.  

I believe the reason he took his time was because we took ours. I didn’t tell him I wanted lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, banana peppers and jalapenos. I told him I wanted lettuce. Tomatoes. Pickles... You get the idea. I made sure not to be rude or patronizing, because sometimes it’s easy to misread a tone of voice. I made sure to say please and thank you. I was mindful of my speech.

It was a fantastic sandwich. About halfway through our meal, the gentleman working there offered us a free cookie. He told us it was broken and so they couldn’t sell it. It was very kind of him. It’s funny how different service can be from one restaurant to another.

Even the mints, which I never bother with at my local Subway because I’m in a rush on my lunch break, were good. They tasted like cinnamon and mint.

It was an excellent idea to slow down and stop for lunch. I don’t regret putting off the book fair, because that lunch was worth a lot more than a few more books to add to my unread stack.

We did everything slowly that day, from visiting the U of M to stopping for bubble tea before coming back home. It was a good day. It has been a good few weeks.

Slow is beautiful.