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In the modern business world, where productivity is always a priority, it’s easy to fall into the habit of rushing through every job to get to the next one. There are obvious problems with this approach: mistakes can be made, work quality may suffer and important details can be missed – in short, more haste, less speed.
There is a lot to be said for slowing down and being more patient with certain tasks, taking the time to make sure that they are done correctly as well as efficiently. But patience is not something that comes naturally to everyone. It is, however, a skill that can be developed with some time and attention.
Recognize the Symptoms
The first step is to recognize when you are feeling impatient. This will not only manifest itself as a sense of being rushed and irritated, but also in physical ways. You may tense your muscles, particularly in the shoulders and neck, clench your teeth or even feel nauseous. You may find it hard to concentrate on what you are doing without thinking about what else you have to do.
Negative feelings like impatience, anger and even rage are instinctive reactions, stemming from self-preservation. [1] Once this kind of negative emotion takes hold, it can be self-perpetuating, spiraling further downwards if left unchecked. Identifying when you are feeling impatient is the first step to becoming more patient.
As impatience can creep up on you, you may find it helpful to set up a trigger, which will cause you to think about it throughout the working day. Mindfulness is an approach to being more focused and concentrating on the present moment. One way that people practicing mindfulness help themselves to remember this is with a ‘mindfulness bell’. Like a digital string tied around your finger, these apps for smart phones, available at the App Store and Google Play, can be set to remind you at set or random times throughout the day to be aware of how you’re feeling.
Alternatively, you could simply set an alarm or a reminder in your calendar - whatever you think will work to remind you to stop and check yourself for impatient feelings.
Stop
When you recognize these symptoms, stop. Take some deep breaths, calm down and center yourself in the moment. Consider your whole body and identify places where your muscles are tense, then focus on relaxing them. This can be difficult, especially when you feel under pressure, but increased focus and reduced stress will benefit your work.
If you find this difficult to do, there is a list of useful websites at lifehack.org which may help.
Examine the Causes
What is the cause of this emotion? Is there a real reason why you need to be in such a hurry or are you working under a deep-seated notion that you simply have to do everything quickly? In essence, what is making you feel impatient?
A technique like the Five Whys may help you to find the root of this issue. [2] In some cases, there may be genuine time pressures that cause the impatient feeling. However, it’s worth weighing the negative consequences of, for example, telling someone you’ll be ten minutes late for a meeting, against making a glaring mistake in the report you plan to present. Which is really more important?
Alternatively, you may have unrealistically high expectations of yourself for how quickly you should be able to work or how productive you should be. If you think this may be the case, consider speaking to a colleague or manager to get an unbiased perspective. Maybe you’re the only one putting pressure on yourself. Assuming you should be more productive than you are will only cause you stress and harm your performance in the long term.
Challenge Yourself
An excellent way to train yourself to be more patient is to choose to put yourself in situations where you have to wait. Pick the longest queue at the supermarket, for example. Take the longer of two routes home, or the one with the most traffic. Do a complex jigsaw puzzle and make sure you finish it.
During these exercises, focus on remaining patient. Try to recognize the lack of real urgency and take in the world around you instead. The more you do this, the easier it should be to return to this calm state of mind again when you’re feeling impatient at work.
Slow Down Your Life
If you’re an impatient person by nature, you may rush through life in many ways. Think about this and focus on slowing down whatever you can. If you rush through meals, focus on eating more slowly and learn to savor your food. If you hurry everywhere you go, walk or drive more slowly. Learn to enjoy the journey rather than fretting about getting to the destination more quickly. If you skim through news articles online and tend to only finish the short ones, choose to carefully read more lengthy pieces.
If you can get out of the habit of constantly hurrying in other aspects of your life, it may help you to slow down at work, too.
Conclusion
While there are sometimes genuine time pressures which require swiftness of thought and action, rushing through every working day will inevitably have negative consequences for your performance and health. Recognizing when you are feeling stressed and impatient, and taking time out to regain your perspective can help you to find a more balanced pace, which benefits the quality of your work and your life.
References[1] Jane Bolton, ‘Four Steps to Developing Patience’ at:
psychologytoday.com (accessed August 2, 2023).
[2] The Five Whys is a technique used to diagnose the root cause of problems. More information on the technique is available at
Wikipedia (accessed August 2, 2023).
