Embracing slow working when you have a 9-5 job

The need for boundaries, a clear version of what success means to you and day-to-day suggestions for keeping your slow working on track

Apart from a short spell as a freelance copywriter nearly ten years ago, I have always worked in a 9-5 (or 8 - 5) desk job. That’s 15 years as a full-time employee.

While it seems that most people want to “ditch the 9-5”, I don’t have any desire to ditch my job for several reasons - I love the steady paycheck, benefits, the option to work remotely, working with a great team, a certain level of flexibility and a clear divide between work time and leisure time. Honestly, if someone asked me when I felt I had more freedom, working for myself or being an employee, I would have to say the latter.

But, when you put the terms slow living and corporate job together, it can be hard to see how they can co-exist.

A lot of times, we blame the company that we work for, and in some cases this is reasonable. Some organisations have crazy expectations around workload, presenteeism and selling your soul to the company. If you work for a company or a boss like this, you might need to be honest about whether moving to a more slow living approach is possible. If not, it may be time to look for a new role.

Other times, we have more power than we think when implementing slow living into our working lives without leaving our jobs or failing in our responsibilities at work.

Photo by Kinga Howard on Unsplash

Before I go into how I’ve incorporated slow living into my job, I want to be clear that I am talking about how this has worked with a white-collar/office job. I understand this might not be a good approach for other job setups such as shift work, professions where you are on call, etc…

There are a few things that I’ve done to ensure that my job is aligned with my slow living/simplicity values. I’ll start with the big picture stuff and then move into the day-to-day things that I do.

Big Picture

1. Define YOUR Version of Success - for me this is where it all started, getting super clear on what my version of success for my life and work really was. It didn’t happen overnight; there was a lot of unpacking of outdated thinking and conditioning that had gotten me to this point in life. What I thought success should look like and the values I thought I should be living and then really being honest about where that came from (parents, attending grammar school, teachers, society, etc…). There were a lot of Google searches, book recommendations, which I’ll have to dig out, and therapy and career coaching sessions. All in all, I think it took 5-6 years to get it straight in my head.

2. Honest Communication - once you are clear on your version of success and what it is you value in life and work, you need to be honest and communicate with the people who need to know. In this case, I spoke to my direct manager about my lack of desire to climb the ladder and take on management responsibilities. We’d been speaking about promotion, and it was great that she thought I could do more, but that’s not the way I wanted to develop. I like the role that I’m doing, and I want to keep being awesome at it.

   She was great about it and very understanding. I have heard stories about managers continuing to push employees even after this type of conversation - if that happens to you, you need to keep repeating the message, and if it’s an “up or out” environment, be prepared to take the steps to move on to a more compatible environment! I also talked things over with the husband a lot. We are on this journey together, so he needed to be aware of how I was feeling and my plans moving forward - he would support me no matter what I decided to do (he’s a goodun!).

3. Set your boundaries - if you want your slow working to be something you live by, you need to set some boundaries, especially with the always-on, global nature of white-collar work today. This will be different for everyone, and some of it will depend on the company you work for and the job that you do. There is no one-size-fits-all.

   For me, it means starting and finishing on time 95% of the time. If I have a later meeting to accommodate US colleagues, I take the time back and start later, go for a walk, etc… during the day. I rarely do overtime (I’m salaried, so I don’t get paid extra) except on rare occasions when there’s a big project wrapping up, or I’m at an in-person team meeting. I don’t have work apps (email, IM) on my phone and I don’t check emails/messages after 6 pm, at weekends or while on holiday. It feels powerful even writing these down and sharing them with you, so thinking about your boundaries and then writing them down is worth doing.

   

   Photo by Ed Hardie on Unsplash

Day to Day

1. Be Protective of Your Calendar - I am borderline obsessive about my calendar, it’s people’s window into what I’m working on and my availability for meetings/chats. I update it daily with tasks, meetings, break times and any appointments that may mean I’m out of the office (doctors, physio, PT sessions, work travel, etc…). It’s colour-coded per project so that I can quickly group tasks, and I try to keep my mornings free for deeper work such as content creation and editing and use my afternoons for more admin-like tasks and meetings. It doesn’t always work if I’m needed in a meeting, or one of my colleagues needs support with something; I am happy to accommodate them. But knowing that my energy and brainpower are highest in the mornings means I’m more efficient if I can engineer my calendar this way.

2. Take Regular Breaks - I don’t know about you, but once I’m settled at my computer if I get deep into a project or task, I can suddenly look up and realise that I haven’t moved for an hour or two. This is not good for us physically or mentally. Make sure you take a 5-10 minute break every hour, grab a coffee, do some stretching or get some fresh air.

   Also, leave your desk to eat your lunch and get away from staring at a screen (that means not switching from computer to phone or tablet!). Take the time to prepare and eat something healthy and really enjoy some downtime before you return to your desk for the afternoon.

3. Prioritise and Recognise the Difference Between Real and Imagined Urgency - OK, so this is a harder one to write about because this is knowledge that I’ve built up over the eight years that I’ve worked for the same company, and I think it does get easier the longer you spend in a role/organisation.

   When dealing with a constant stream of requests and questions from different people, and it happens a lot as a content manager, I have become really good at recognising which requests are needed or urgent, which are OK to wait a little while and when I can push back and say there isn’t bandwidth. If there’s anything that I’m not sure about, I will speak to my manager to get her opinion. I can’t tell you how to do this in your job, but what I can say is that if you have many requests coming from many people and you don’t want to lose your mind/drown under your workload, you need to figure this out for your own sanity if nothing else!

4. Don’t Let Email and instant messenger (IM) Derail You - I know that this is easier said than done, especially with IM (not everyone respects the busy/DND statuses!). But setting boundaries around this is a real productivity hack. According to a study conducted by the University of California, Irvine, it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus on a task after being interrupted. This means that even a small interruption can cause a significant loss of productivity.

   To stop my squirrel brain from getting distracted by every message and email, I have turned off most of my notifications. That means that I can go in and check everything when I’m at a natural stopping point rather than having knee-jerk responses to every message/email in real time. I am also very aware of who/what needs a quick response. For emails, the company I work for has set the guidance of responding within 24 hours, which is super helpful because the expectation has been set for us. If your company hasn’t set an expectation, I think that 24 hours to respond to an email is a reasonable boundary to set.

5. Do Your Job Well - I want to stress that incorporating slow living principles isn’t about slacking or being lazy; you still need to do your job well (and you will feel better if you do!). I have found that focusing on all the areas mentioned in this post, knowing what success looks like, setting boundaries and managing my time and priorities has made me better at my job.

This has been a long road; I think the whole shift in my working life really started when I left my job in London in 2013 (a post is coming about that because it was a bit of a drama!). It felt like a street fight at times, but it was worth it. I am happier in my job/career and life (because I have one outside of work now!) than I’ve ever been, even if it looks like I’m selling myself short to some people. Maybe I am, but I often remember the saying, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”