What are slow days?
A slow day isn’t a holiday, and it isn’t a lazy day. It’s an ordinary day lived at a pace that lets you notice it.
What a slow day feels like
It’s letting the kettle boil without checking your phone. It’s eating lunch at a table instead of a desk, or walking the long way home because the light is nice. Nothing on a slow day has to be useful, and nothing has to be shared.
You don’t need a free weekend
Most people can’t clear a whole day, and you don’t have to. A slow day can be built from small pockets:
- One thing at a time. Drink the tea while it’s warm, and just drink the tea.
- A room without a screen. Leave your phone in another room for one meal.
- Ten minutes of nothing. Sit by a window and let your mind wander. You aren’t wasting that time. You’re spending it.
- An early evening. Let the day end before you’re worn out.
Slow living and simple living
Slow living is about pace: giving things the time they actually take. Simple living is about amount: owning, doing and wanting less, so there’s room left over. The two grow into each other. Fewer things to manage leaves more time, and more time makes it easier to notice what you don’t need.
People have been saying this for a long while. In 1854, Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden: “Our life is frittered away by detail. … Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!”
Where to begin
Pick one small pocket from the list above and try it today. If you’d like a little help, every tool on this site takes a few minutes and asks nothing of you.