Slowing down on a daily basis sometimes seems impossible. Indeed, we tend to feel that we need more hours in the day rather than slowing down. What if we rethought the way we manage our time and even the way we live? Here are 8 tips for living more slowly and happily.

1 – Slowing down in everyday life: changing your beliefs

What drives us to run faster and faster every day? It’s our beliefs. The ones that tell us that to live a life worth living, we have to do a lot, the ones that tell us that to look good at work, we have to do a lot…

In fact, we don’t always realize it, but in our modern society, we’re invited to live a life in which we’re “overbooked”. Yes, we often put the spotlight on those people who run around, who are stressed, who have no time for anything, no time to take care of themselves or their relationships.

And that’s why more and more of us are panting under the effort. We’re completely under pressure. What if we stopped?

What kind of person do you want to be? What kind of life do you want to live?

Do you want to live a stressful everyday life or a more zen, gentler one?

After all, it’s up to you to choose what you believe in.

You choose! Choose the person you want to be and the life you want to lead.

I invite you to write all this down on a piece of paper and reread it every time you feel the need to slow down, every time you hear yourself say “I’m stressed”.

2 – Getting back to what’s most important for a more serene life

If you’re reading this article, it’s because you need to slow down on a daily basis. I’d like to say, “Welcome to the club” (laughs). Indeed, I’m a stressed person, because I tend to want to do much, much too much.

Now, I’ve learned to recognize the moments when I need to slow down, all the times when I hear myself say: “I don’t have time”, “I’m stressed”. These are signals to slow down!

But how do I do it?

What’s particularly effective for me, and what I invite you to try out, is to get back to what’s most important.

To do this, ask yourself these questions:

What’s most important to me in my life? What’s most important to me, right now?

Is it more important that I do this and that, or that I take the time to visit my family? That I take the time to take care of myself, my joy?

In other words, to slow down in our daily lives, it’s essential to know how to refocus on the things that are really important to us.

In fact, I’ve found that the more I feel the need to chase time, the more I need to slow down. Observe and test yourself!

3 – Slow down on a daily basis: sort out your activities

Slowing down on a daily basis means no longer running around. That said, you may sigh at your computer and say to yourself: “Easy for you to say”.

I know (laughs). But I really do urge you to sort out your activities.

Because it’s quite possible that, without even realizing it, you’re doing too many things you don’t need to.

So, how do you find out?

I invite you to start by looking back over the last 7 days. Can you take a sheet of paper and a pencil and list everything you’ve done?

Then go back over each activity and ask yourself: do I like this activity? And if you don’t like it, ask yourself: do I really have to do this activity? If not, simply stop. If yes, ask yourself: how can I do this activity less often? Can I delegate it, ask for help or make it more enjoyable?

In fact, the key to slowing down in your day-to-day life is to take back control of your time and do things with a smile. Because very often it’s not so much the number of things we have to do that stresses us, but rather the way we do and experience them.

Yes, slowing down on a daily basis also means learning to do things with a light touch.

4 – Taking time out to take stock

Slowing down means taking stock. We are often stressed without even realizing it. This is why we let stress build up, and why it often ends up having major repercussions in our lives: health problems, relationship problems…

That’s why I invite you to take stock on a regular basis. Personally, I take stock of my day every evening.

In fact, every evening, I look back on my day and ask myself: what happened, what did I like and dislike, how did I feel, am I happy? Am I happy? Why? What kind of day do I want to have tomorrow? What am I going to do?

Thanks to these questions, I can recognize the moments when I let my stress consume me, and take care the next day to slow down.

In fact, it’s important to understand that slowing down on a daily basis doesn’t mean doing nothing, it just means doing and experiencing things differently. It means doing less, of course, but it doesn’t mean losing sight of your goals and activities.

5 – Take a fresh look at your day

One of the things that helps me the most to slow down on a daily basis when I’m feeling really stressed out is this quote:

“Perform each act of your life as if it were to be your last.”

In fact, what I invite you to do is, when you feel the need to slow down, slow down with this quote in mind, so you can really savour the moment.

Because sometimes slowing down is just taking a 5-minute break. But it’s about savouring it, being proud in a way of taking that break.

In fact, don’t think that slowing down means taking 2-3 hour breaks. In fact, that’s why we’re all so stressed, because often when we slow down in our day-to-day lives, it only lasts for a day or two, and then we’re back to the stress.

Because we have a false vision of what it means to slow down in our daily lives. In fact, slowing down is simply living a day in which we take small 5-minute breaks regularly, to breathe, enjoy, put our thoughts in order…

6 – Slowing down on a daily basis: doing just 2 or 3 important things

Slowing down on a daily basis means knowing what we have to do and why we do things.

What’s more, it’s a daily routine in which we prefer to see our progress in the long term rather than the short. In concrete terms, this means that instead of trying to fit everything into a single day, we prefer to spread it out over the week, or even the month.

In other words, don’t ask so much of yourself in a single day. Learn to break things down over several days.

In fact, allow yourself to take things one step at a time.

To do this, all you have to do is follow one rule: do only 2 or 3 important things each day.

7 – Don’t get caught up in time-wasters

What we don’t always realize is that not only do we want to fit everything into a single day, we also want to fit everything into a single time slot.

Indeed, we don’t always notice it, but we spend an enormous amount of time on things that devour our time: television, the Internet, games…

And, in the end, our day is considerably shortened.

In other words, slowing down on a daily basis also means taking good care not to waste any more of our time on things that devour our time.

So, of course, it’s not a question of no longer doing those things that make us feel good, but of doing them at times when we’ve decided to, and doing them within a certain time frame.

8 – Slow down in everyday life: do one thing at a time

If I’ve understood anything about my stress, it’s that the more stressed I am, the more I’m running out of time, the more I need to stop.

Which seems paradoxical: I need to go even faster, so I stop. Strange?

And yet, it’s so true. Stress feeds on stress, so the only way to get rid of it is to stop.

In other words, the key to slowing down in everyday life is to learn to recognize when we’re tempted to multitask. Yes, that’s the right signal.

Because it’s when we need to save time that we urgently need to stop. To stop and do one thing at a time. To come back to ourselves, to our day, to our life.

All too often, we define ourselves by the things we do… and that’s a mistake.

We’re not machines for DOING, we’re human BEINGS.

In other words, make a promise to yourself to do just one thing at a time from now on, and you’ll see everything change.

Find out more:

I invite you to read these 2 complementary articles:

Discover How can I stop thinking? 3 techniques to calm your mind
Discover Accepting life as it is: 4 steps to greater serenity

I recommend this inspiring book:

The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer

The author explores the transformative power of seeking calm in an ever-changing world. Through anecdotes and personal reflections, the book encourages us to take advantage of moments of calm and reflection to cultivate a serene life. Iyer argues that by slowing down and disconnecting from constant agitation, we can discover a deeper sense of peace, clarity and fulfillment.

Over the years, I’ve developed many of the concepts described in this book. It has been gratifying to realize that I was on the right track. I’ve always said that everyone should take time for themselves, but that only the individual has the power to do so.

Thank you very much for reading this article.

If you liked it, let me know in the comments.

Take care of yourself