I always find it fascinating how, come January, many people suddenly decide to “wake up,” speed ahead and get busy. It’s as if an automatic switch set for midnight on 31st December, flips us into new- year-productive mode.
Yet as human beings, we don’t operate that way. Every year, I meet leaders who confess how hard it is to get back into the rhythm of work in the new year, and how guilty they feel for not being productive straight away. We can’t simply switch parts of ourselves on and off. We’re whole beings, and re-entering the pace of work after a break takes time.
When we return to work, we do not arrive empty handed. We bring the residue of our holidays: rest or exhaustion, joy or grief, connection or loneliness. The pressure to rush ahead leaves little room to acknowledge this reality.
In a world that careens relentlessly forward, slowing down may feel counterintuitive and even bad for business. But it might just be the most productive thing we can do.
The high cost of constant speed
Research provides some compelling insights into the cost of speed. Multitasking, long assumed to be a productivity skill, has been repeatedly shown to undermine attention, creativity and effectiveness. We are rapidly switching between tasks and paying a cognitive penalty each time.
Johann Hari, in his book Stolen Focus, argues that we’ve individualised the problem of attention, blaming ourselves for not concentrating, when in fact, our environments make it increasingly difficult to slow down and focus.
In addition, the relentless flow of information around us can create the sensation that the world itself is accelerating. That sensation can feel energising. We appear productive, connected and informed. But the trade-off is significant. In organisational spaces, wellness issues such as burnout, exhaustion, chronic stress and an inability to sustain focus long enough to do meaningful work, are all too common.
What we lose in the process is what Hari describes as “depth”: the capacity for reflection, critical thinking, understanding and authentic connection. Depth requires time. It requires slowness. In an era where we can instantly outsource thinking to AI, asking it to summarise, generate or even simulate relationships, we are making a profound trade-off between speed and substance.
We are losing the ability to think critically
A university lecturer recently shared her concern that students are losing opportunities to practise comprehension and critical reasoning because of over-reliance on AI tools. While these technologies are useful for editing, factchecking and summarisation, it cannot replicate a core ingredient essential to education and research: depth. Students must wrestle with ideas to learn. Without that struggle, we risk short-changing an entire generation of the capacity to think critically and engage fully with the world.
The same applies in the workplace, where speed is often rewarded, and those who respond quickest become indispensable. Yet many leaders operating this way report being overwhelmed, trapped in endless to-do lists and experiencing declining health and wellbeing.
I also often encounter young employees who enter workplaces excited and desperately wanting to learn, only to experience superficial onboarding and an expectation to assimilate instantly. Learning on the job requires time, mentorship, trial and error, and reflection. For many important skills, speed is not the route to mastery.
Thinking slow and staying alive
Dr. Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow offers a useful lens here. Our fast, intuitive thinking helps us navigate routine tasks, but it is slow, deliberate thinking that enables sound judgement and strategic decision-making.
In my work in safety and wellness this reality is all too stark. it is often the everyday, familiar moments; rushing down stairs for a meeting, speeding through traffic to get the kids to school on time, skipping seatbelts, that result in the most serious errors and catastrophic accidents. When we move too fast, we stop noticing what matters.
The old Arrive Alive safety campaign “Speed Kills” still rings true, not only on the road but in life. Speed is killing something essential: the depth, presence, and connection that make us human.
Choosing to slow down
So, as you begin your day, ask yourself what one or two things you can do to allow for more depth and stillness? Perhaps it’s avoiding your phone first thing in the morning, limiting news intake, removing unnecessary notifications, delegating where you can, or dedicating time to connect meaningfully with your team or family. Or maybe it’s doing something beautifully slow; reading, enjoying a rest day, or sitting quietly with a warm drink as the sun rises.
Notice how these small, intentional moments make you feel, and how they influence your ability to get things done. You may be surprised to find that doing so produces a paradoxical effect. By slowing down, we navigate complexity more effectively.
Perhaps the real challenge this year is not how quickly we can move, but whether we are willing to resist our culture of speed long enough to recover depth, focus and perspective.
Taegan Devar is an industrial psychologist and the founder and Managing Director of people and organisational development firm Fineline Consulting.
