Work slowly; drink lots of water

Ticking to-do boxes and completing as many tasks as possible in a day, is the way I normally work. But today I decided to take a slow approach. For a start, I worked from home. I started the day with email replies for an hour until I felt completely awake, then I did some statistical analysis for a couple of hours, then moved to my meditation cushion and sat there for 15 minutes or so. Instead of hunching over the keyboard, I was sitting tall on the floor, cross-legged and everything. This made me feel calm and hungry, so I resorted to the kitchen to make myself some lunch. After that, I checked my emails and I start reacting to things as fast as possible and my slow workday plan went down the drain, but at least I had a flavor of it.

Not multi-tasking and punctuating the day with yoga moves, cups of coffee and unrelated to work reading might initially appear to compromise productivity but actually enhance long-term creativity and increase quality of life. The thing I’m seeking is working for the sake of work itself, be a bit more William Morris, a bit less Beyoncé. I’m not talking about working halfday and then philosophise in the afternoon (Karl Marx, I’m talking to you) but working slowly and methodically at one project at a time and when possible seeing  a project through all its stages, from the conception to execution to final product.