Will Slowing Down Make You More Productive?

It may sound counterintuitive, but the evidence indicates slowing down can help.

By Paul Cerrato, MA, senior research analyst and communications specialist and John Halamka, M.D., Diercks President, Mayo Clinic Platform

“The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.”  James Taylor’s lyrics suggest that we can’t really enjoy the passing minutes, hours, and days if we are constantly rushing through our daily tasks, anxious to finish one project and move onto the next. The song also suggests that slowing down to a more balanced, healthy pace is a secret that few understand. But the question remains: Will this slower pace make you more productive?

Some of the strongest evidence focuses on the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 thinking. Type 1 thinking refers to the fast, intuitive thinking that we typically use to deal with familiar problems that are relatively easy to resolve. Clinicians use this approach all the time to diagnose patients based on the patterns of signs and symptoms they observe. Type 2 reasoning, on the other hand, is particularly effective in scenarios in which the patient’s presentation follows no obvious disease script, when they present with an atypical pattern, or when there is no unique pathognomonic signpost to clinch the diagnosis. It usually starts with a hypothesis that is then subjected to analysis with the help of critical thinking, logic, multiple branching, and evidence-based decision trees and rules. This analytic approach also requires an introspective mindset that is sometimes referred to as metacognition, or “the ability to step back and reflect on what is going on in a clinical situation.”

The value of this slower approach has been demonstrated in first and second year residents who were asked to make several diagnoses. Investigators found that when they used rapid, nonanalytic reasoning they were more likely to make errors, when compared to when the residents used a more reflective approach to the diagnostic puzzles. Similarly, slowing the pace of interns’ daily activities, by reducing their working hours, has been shown to significantly reduce serious medical errors in the ICU.

But even if you are not being challenged by a difficult diagnostic puzzle, slowing down still makes sense. Overall, 11 studies have concluded that taking short breaks—in the form of daytime naps—improves cognitive performance in working-age adults. Dutheil et al found that a nap lasting on average 1 hour (+/-about 30 minutes), improved alertness, executive functioning, and memory.

All these studies only serve to reinforce a neuropsychological phenomenon sometimes referred to as the speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT). This phenomenon occurs in all creatures, insect, rodents, and humans alike. It can be summed up succinctly: “Faster responses entail less accumulated evidence, and hence less informed decisions.”

One of the benefits of slowing down is it gives you the opportunity to develop the art of noticing.  And whether you are trying to untangle a complex diagnostic puzzle, reach a creative business decision, or simply taking your dog for a walk in the park, making a concerted effort to notice all the things you usually ignore can open up countless possibilities. Among clinicians, it sidesteps the availability bias that the residents fell victim in the study mentioned earlier, i.e., the tendency to become “stuck” on the first diagnosis that seems to make sense. But practicing the art of noticing even has advantages outside the clinic. That walk in the park with your dog might seem like the right time to review your next patient’s signs and symptoms, but it may also be a good time to notice the subtle changes in the color of leaves as summer ends, or the shape of the clouds above—what Joni Mitchell once referred to as “rows and floes of angel hair, and ice cream castles in the air, and feather canyons everywhere.”

The well-known Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer summed up the value of slowing down: “When you actively notice new things, that puts you in the present….As you’re noticing new things it’s engaging, and it turn out…it’s literally, not just figuratively, enlivening.”