The Real Cost of Never Slowing Down
I'm currently reading Ready, Set, Slow by Lee Holden, a Qi Gong master and licensed acupuncturist who spends the whole book making a pretty radical case: you get more done, not less, when you slow down. I learned this the hard way. My body forced me to slow down, an actual hard stop that lasted years, on the heels of over a decade of hustle, the antithesis of slowing down. I always found it amusing when I asked patients and clients what they did for relaxation. "Relaxation?" they'd say. "I don't have time for relaxation." Neither did I. Then we'd laugh about what it's like to try to do it all in a world that glorifies busyness, where a stuffed schedule is treated as a sign of importance.
Slowing down not only feels good (once you get used to it), it is essential for your health, wellbeing and overall quality of life.
This is a part of cognitive ergonomics, and even though it doesn't get much press, it's critical to the inner workings of every individual and business. Not only does it affect the physical health and wellbeing of employees, it also greatly affects the relationships, creativity and collaborative efforts of everyone. It's about the whole environment you're operating in, and pace is part of that environment. A workstation set up perfectly for a body that never gets a break is still going to break down.
What "Always On" Actually Costs
Corporate culture treats busyness as a virtue. Full calendars, back-to-back meetings, answering emails at 9 p.m., all read as signs of commitment. But the data on what that pace is actually doing to people keeps getting harder to ignore.
Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace report found that about 40% of employees worldwide experienced a lot of stress the day before they were surveyed. That's just one day, not a look back over the past month or year. In the US and Canada, that number climbs to 50%, the highest of any region measured. Meanwhile, employee engagement dropped to 20% in 2025, the lowest it's been since 2020. Twenty percent. Gallup estimates that low engagement costs the global economy roughly $10 trillion a year in lost productivity. That's nearly 9% of global GDP, walking out the door because people are too depleted to bring their full selves to work. What it doesn't factor is the personal toll.
What's interesting is that the busyness isn't translating into the productivity it promises. Pushing harder without recovery doesn't produce more output. It produces more stress, and eventually, less output.
It Seems Counterintuitive
Old me would say, "How can slowing down actually improve productivity?" It made sense that slowing down could restore energy, since you're expending less of it. What didn't make sense was the idea that pausing to relax, to drop into the present moment, could actually help you get more done. But through my studies and lived experience, I've found it has a profound effect, and it's well worth the small time investment. Holden doesn't suggest we need to become monks or go on meditation retreats. It's accessible in small moments throughout the day.
The Three Places "Slow" Actually Works
Holden organizes the book around three areas: slow the mind, slow the body, slow relationships. I'm not all the way through it yet, but the framing is useful.
Slow the mind looks like fewer decisions crammed into a day and more space between them. I've written before about what interruptions actually cost, and it's the same math here: a mind that never gets a pause doesn't get sharper from the extra hours, it gets slower and more error-prone. When we pause, we also get more creative, less stressed, and more curious, all of which matters for building collaborative relationships, including the one with yourself.
Slow the body is the physical piece, and it's where the science is the clearest. More on that below.
Slow relationships is the one people skip past fastest, and it might matter the most. A conversation where you're half present, thinking of the next meeting or the never-ending to-do list, is a different experience for both people than one where you're actually there. You can't fake presence, and your nervous system, and theirs, can tell the difference.
The Science of the Exhale
I want to be clear that "slow down" isn't just Lee's idea. There's real physiology behind it, and it doesn't take much.
A 2021 study published in Scientific Reports had participants do five minutes of guided, slow, deep breathing. Afterward, researchers measured a significant increase in vagal tone, the marker of how active your parasympathetic nervous system, your body's rest-and-recover mode, actually is. Anxiety scores dropped too, and the two were connected: the more the vagal tone increased, the more anxiety decreased. Five minutes. That's it.
This is the same nervous system that gets jarred every time your inbox pings, every time a meeting runs long into the next one, every time you eat lunch at your desk while scanning Slack. None of those moments feel dramatic on their own. But your body is keeping score of all of them, all day, every day.
What I Have Found Helpful
I come at this from the inside. I've lived with chronic illness for over a decade, and I know from personal experience what it costs to keep pushing on a body that's asking you to stop. That experience is a big part of why I left high-volume clinical work for the work I do now, helping people and organizations thrive. It's easier to teach pacing than it is to learn it the hard way, and I'd rather help people learn it before their body forces the lesson.
One habit I incorporate into my day is small: I build in a real pause between one task and the next, not a scroll through my phone, an actual pause. Even 90 seconds of slow breathing before I open the next email changes how I show up for it. It's the same principle behind the movement breaks I talk about in my post on exercise snacks: short, frequent resets beat one long break at the end of an exhausted day. Your nervous system runs on the same logic your muscles do.
Some Things You Can Try
Start with one slow breath, not a full practice. Before your next meeting, take one slow inhale and a longer exhale. Focus on breathing into your belly instead of up into your upper chest and shoulders. Five minutes, or even less, measurably shifts your physiology.
Build a real pause between tasks. Not a phone check, an actual gap. Stand up, look out a window, breathe, close your eyes for 30 seconds. Let your nervous system reset before you load the next thing in.
Protect one slow-relationship moment a day. One conversation, one meal, one walk where your phone stays out of reach. Presence is a practice. The more you do it, the easier it gets.
Notice your resistance to slowing down. If the idea of a pause makes you anxious, that's information, not a character flaw. It usually means you've been running on stress hormones long enough that stillness feels unfamiliar, even unsafe. I was there. For a very long time.
Treat pacing as prevention, not indulgence. The same principle that protects your back from repetitive strain protects your nervous system from burnout: manage the load before it becomes a problem, not after.
The Bottom Line
Slow isn't the opposite of productive. It's what makes productive sustainable. The hustle model has its cost: a body cost and a business cost, and both are measurable. You don't have to overhaul your whole life or business to push back on it. You need intention, and a few real pauses, built in on purpose.
If you're noticing that pace, not just posture, might be part of what's driving your pain, fatigue, or burnout, that's worth a conversation.
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FAQs
Does slowing down actually make you more productive, or is that just a nice idea? There's real physiology behind it. Chronic stress and constant task-switching wear down focus and decision-making over the course of a day. Gallup's 2026 workplace data found that low engagement, closely tied to unmanaged stress, costs the global economy an estimated $10 trillion a year in lost productivity. Recovery isn't the opposite of output. It's what sustains it.
How stressed are workers really right now?
Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace report found about 40% of employees worldwide reported significant stress the previous day, with the US and Canada at 50%, the highest of any region measured.
How quickly can slow breathing actually change your nervous system?
A 2021 study in Scientific Reports found that just five minutes of guided, slow, deep breathing produced a measurable increase in vagal tone and a corresponding drop in anxiety. You don't need a long practice to get a real physiological benefit.
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