How to enjoy slow living while growing a career
Slow living is a lifestyle that focuses on enjoying life at a leisurely pace. It’s slowing down to take in your surroundings and savor everything around you.
I found myself gravitating toward slow living about 4 or 5 years ago when I was in my late 20s. I realized I wanted to enjoy a slower pace of life where I could wake up on a Saturday morning to bake a loaf of bread or spend several hours on a Sunday afternoon simmering a pot of bolognese — without feeling rushed or like I’m wasting time.
Once I began my journey of slow living, I started saying no more often to external expectations or commitments and yes to more of the things I love like:
Reading
Trying new recipes that take hours to make
Watercolor painting
Sitting outside with a made-from-scratch margarita
Laughing with friends over dessert after work
Taking my dog for a walk in the woods on a snowy day
These are the things I started to do so I could savor more of life’s simple joys.
Now in my early 30s, I’ve been on a journey of incorporating slow living into my everyday life. I realized if I wanted to really get closer to a leisurely life, I had to create a career that would allow me to do so. That meant switching from agency life to working on an in-house communications team and learning how to create boundaries around work.
Slow living and growing a career isn’t always easy to do — especially for those of us who started our careers in our early 20s running at 100 mph. There’s a lot of hustle culture out there involving late work nights and 24/7 emailing, and perhaps it may not go away completely. But I wholeheartedly believe we can live slow, leisurely lives and take back control of our careers so we can do what we enjoy most.
If you’re feeling pulled in the direction of slowing down in your life and career (regardless of where you’re at), here’s are some ways I’ve incorporated slow living into my daily life and work:
1. Start each day with pour over coffee.
If you really want to enter the realm of slow living, buy yourself a Chemex (or ask for one for Christmas). Making pour over coffee has created a 10-minute ritual for me each day where I enjoy the art of slowly brewed coffee. While my pour over may only make about two cups in 10 minutes, I love it because I get to wake up myself with all of my senses — from the smell of coffee beans to the loud grinder to the steady pour of boiling water swirling over ground coffee beans. I love it and the best part about the process is I’m rewarded with the best tasting cup of coffee every time.
2. Practice mindfulness.
Mindfulness the essential habit of a slow living lifestyle. I use mindfulness to recognize my thoughts and observe them, which is especially helpful during times of heightened work or life stress. Instead of letting my brain default to thinking about my to-do list at work, I have made progress on training my brain to focus on work while at work and shut those thoughts off (for the most part) while I’m not at work.
Mindfulness is an important tool for slow living because it helps you experience the world using all of your senses. I enjoy taking mindfulness walks where I focus on feeling the ground with me feet, listening to the birds chirp with my ears, and feel the air and wind around me on my skin. While not every day is filled with mindfulness, this habit helps me do my best to be present.
3. Approach work at a moderate pace.
In recent years, there’s more and more companies moving to four-day work weeks. And there’s more conversations around work-life balance and slow productivity. However, for most of us (especially those working in the US), we still experience the overwork and burnout that’s due to too many meetings and emails (and expectations to always be available, even on vacation).
Slowing down at work is probably the hardest step of adopting a slow living lifestyle. Here’s why:
A) Not everyone wants or understands slow living (it basically is not part of American culture).
B) It’s often challenging to create boundaries around work.
C) The 40-hour work week is ingrained into how people work and define productivity in the United States.
That’s why it’s so important to find a pace that works for you in your career and to be ruthless around setting boundaries. For me, it has looked like being getting super aware when I slip into my old habits of working 10-hour work days or spending 3-4 hours on a weekend working on a project. It also looks like picking the top three priorities for each work day. Finding my moderate pace means being honest with myself and logging off at 5 p.m. and resisting the urge to send one more email, and saying no to extra projects, opportunities, meetings or events.
Prioritizing my workday and saying no has opened up the door for me to keep my workload at a mostly manageable level and less pressure to say yes all of the time. It has helped me find the courage within to speak up when I feel overwhelmed (without feeling like I’ve failed).
4. Find a slow hobby.
The best way to enjoy slow living is doing slow activities (and doing them without guilt). For me, that often means reading a book outside or cooking a recipe that involves a few hours (hello, risotto). Finding a slow hobby is a wonderful way to practice a leisurely life because it brings you into the present moment.
While I’m not quite at my dream of living somewhere near Lake Michigan where I can walk down to the beach each morning and bake a pie at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday, I am getting closer and closer every day to enjoying a slow living lifestyle. And I’d say most days I get to enjoy slow moments, even if it’s only my 10-minutes of making coffee.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on slow living. Is slow living something you're looking to incorporate into your life or do you prefer a fast-paced, fully scheduled life? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
