It takes more time and helps you slow down

For quite a while now, I have been following the excellent blog Farnam Street, where Shane Parrish delves deeper into the benefits of slowing down. After working on a trading floor, multi-tasking, “working” long hours, and getting overwhelmed balancing the demands of a career, raising a family and pursuing my personal interests, I realized that my life was going too fast, and it wasn’t helping me. I started taking small, but conscious steps to slow my life down.

The five steps that I took to slow myself down are:

1. Wake up early: I now wake up about two hours earlier than the household, go for a run or a walk, and enjoy the silence and quiet while my slow stovetop coffee maker takes its time to brew coffee. I am forced to slow down and I use my time to read or think or work on something that my fresh mind can focus on, uninterrupted.
2. Walk instead of taking the subway: I could either take a 10 minute walk or a 2 minute subway ride as part of my commute. Making myself walk forced me to slow things down, and take the rush out of my system
3. Do one thing at a time: Setting just one task at one time makes you extremely productive – whether its getting a presentation done, or checking your account statements, or ordering halloween costumes. It takes a little planning, but in the end, you get more done.
4. Eat lunch away from your desk: Just stepping away from your desk and taking ten or fifteen minutes to eat your lunch away from your workspace, focusing on the meal, can help you slow down and reset your mind, making you more productive. If you have more time at lunch, even better – take it to a nearby park if you can.
5. Talk less: I reduced the amount of small talk at work and also number of phone calls I make or take. I tried to stop myself from talking unless necessary. The silence and time created by cutting out the interruptions and small talk is tremendous.

But what does this have to do with investing?

The biggest benefit from slowing things down is that you create silence, and that silence brings a sense of calm and clarity in your thinking, which helps you focus on what matters.

Investing is not about looking at a hundred factors at the same time and making split-second decisions. Lets leave that to HFT where its a function of math and technology. Slowing down gives you the opportunity to bring clarity to your investment process, to avoid subjecting yourself to making split-second decisions clouded by the noise around you. Create the silence to focus on what your objectives are, and create the time and space to bring clarity to your decision-making.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in this article are that of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of his employer or any of its affiliates. The author may be associated as an investor or as an advisor with certain companies mentioned in this article.