Slowing down isn’t about giving things up. It’s making time first for the things in your life that matter most

Zen Habits has an excellent post on making time in your life for your personal needs and goals.

In our action-obsessed, “get it done” culture, it’s all too easy to become convinced that the more goals you have — especially tough career and work goals — the better your life will be.

This is wrong. As in so much else in life, quality in goals matters far more than quantity. Setting yourself too many goals makes it certain that you won’t accomplish more than a tiny fraction of them — and won’t have time to enjoy whatever you do manage to bring to a successful conclusion.

Losing focus on what matters most

Whether you’re talking about work or broader life goals, having just a few, important, quality goals will always produce a better result than overwhelming yourself with more goals than you can handle — or certainly handle well.

As the Zen habits article says:

Often the problem is that we try to take on too many goals at once. We have a list of things we want to accomplish, spanning the spectrum from gardening to learning Italian to getting in shape. It can be overwhelming, and because of that we never start. Or instead, perhaps we start with a head full of steam, but then run out of steam quickly, because it’s extremely difficult to maintain focus and energy (the two key ingredients in accomplishing a goal) for too many goals at once.

Slow Leadership, like slow living, means focusing on what matters most and giving yourself the time you need to accomplish it — and do it well.

Do first what matters most. Do it well and enjoy it fully. Then, and only then, turn to whatever else you have sufficient time to tackle properly.

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