Staying ahead of the game! These super-achievers believe in taking it slow to move faster

Living the fast life isn’t everything it is made out to be. Sometimes, it is important to slow down to move faster and stay ahead of the game.

As an entrepreneur, you may be constantly pushing the pedal to the metal in your day-to-day life. Chances are, you’re living in the fast lane and don’t even know it. If you are rushing through life at a manic speed, then you are overlooking an important workplace trait: patience. Follow these simple tips as speed bumps to slow down, before you encounter road blocks ahead.

Stick to it
Whether it’s meetings and projects or cooking dinner and picking up the kids, make a reasonable list of things that you have to do on priority that day, and stick to it. Give yourself a rough time frame for each with breaks in between, and make sure you actually take a break. Once you’re done with your todo list, don’t put down the other tasks for yourself; they can wait till tomorrow. Instead, do nothing. That is your reward for getting everything done. You’ve earned the rest and now it’s time to recharge.


Despite a hectic work schedule, Harsh Mariwala keeps his weekends for leisure and family. He uses the time off to play golf for three-four hours.

Switch off
What’s the first thing you do after you wake up? For most of us, it’s reaching for the phone. Then when we get to work, we check our emails and when we want to unwind, we watch mindless videos or play even more mindless games. Being connected 24/7, whether for work or pleasure, means that your brain is always on. It’s tough to slow down when you’re checking new messages coming in. That’s why you need to put your gadgets away for a portion of your day.

Single focus
When you’re moving too fast, you’re often trying to do too many things at the same time. This doesn’t guarantee you results, but it surely stresses you out. So, skip multitasking altogether and instead, focus on completing one task at a time. You may think that it’s a waste of time, but it is actually more efficient than doing many things at once. And if you keep getting emails with more work, make a note and get to it later.


Nadia Chauhan, who has recently started practising yoga, says the key to staying healthy is to embrace a more active lifestyle.

Just say no
When you’re full up, you say no to that midnight snack doing the rounds. But what about when your work load is full up? Do you still take a second helping? You shouldn’t. While saying yes can give you the sense of new possibilities, saying no will give you time to actually enjoy life and spend a moment or two on yourself.

Sit in silence
Sitting in silence and just doing nothing for five minutes a day is something that most of us need to learn how to do. Don’t turn on any devices, don’t get distracted by your phone and don’t get up after two minutes — learning to calm your body and mind has a great effect on your body and actually lets you regroup and recharge.