Reading time: 61 seconds.
Do you ever find yourself with more tasks than time?
(Sorry, was that a rhetorical question, wasn’t it??)
Do you find when you’re over-tasked and time-challenged that you speed up your actions in an effort to get more done in a shorter period of time?
Does it work?
As a professional skater and instructor, I used to take on hockey teams to improve their effectiveness.
At the onset, the kids didn’t often see the advantage of me coming in as a power skating instructor.
“You, in your figure skates, are going to teach ME how to score more goals?”
(If I had a nickel for every time I heard that mumble.)
Think about it. If you can’t get yourself past the offense and to the opponent’s net effectively, then stick-handling is a mute skill!
So, sticks aside, we would do balance drills, strength drills, stretching drills, quick-start drills, stopping drills, turning drills, falling-down-getting-up drills, and on and on.
The drills the kids most often liked to do were anything that involved speed.
But if they hadn’t mastered good technique or a level of proficiency in the skill itself, adding speed made the result worse.
I used to say to the kids, “First you get good, then you get fast.”
We would add speed to the drills to measure progress but always took the drills back to a pace that matched good technique.
Aha ~ When you crank up the pace beyond the point of ability, your effectiveness diminishes.
I remember seeing an oversized eraser with the saying, “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get”.
Forcing yourself to do things at a speed or level of complexity (aka “multi-tasking”) that is beyond your ordinary pace, usually results in errors and poorer results.
It takes more time to go back and do a task for the second time than it does to do it right first time around.
Challenging yourself to read faster, type faster, remember better, do routine math in your head or anything that will help you accomplish more in a shorter period of time will put you way ahead.
Be kind to yourself about what that pace is, though.
If you’re doing your very best with what you have from where you are, you’re already a Superstar.