Why You Are Slow.

...And How to Fix It Fast.

Since A Kid, You Were Slowed

You were punished for being fast and good.
At home.
At school.
At work.
If you finished anything quick, you got more.
More chores. More meetings. More tasks. More.

"The reward for toil had been more toil.
If you dug the best ditches, they gave you a bigger shovel."
—Terry Pratchett

So you learned the hard way to use all the time available… and maybe some more.

But in our permissionless world, that mindset will bury you and your potential.

The real problem?
You are not slow. You have been conditioned to move slow.
To overthink. To overprepare. To avoid failing fast.

Is This Familiar?

• You waste time before starting

• You second-guess mid-task

• You allow distraction

• You underestimate the cost of “just 5 minutes”

• You fixate on "perfect" instead of “done”

• You burn out doing less, not more, in slow mode (tweaking, hoarding data, overthinking, shiny chasing)

• You take your sweet time to decide if you need to pivot… and change your mind fast

“Successful people make decisions quickly and change them very slowly.
Unsuccessful people make decisions very slowly and change them often.”
—Napoleon Hill

The Cost Of Slow

• Mental fog

• Missed shots

• Dragged-out projects

• Momentum decay

• Stressed-out underperformance

You waste time while doing a worse job. Can't think of a worse combo.

You're not born this way. Nobody is.
Don’t believe me? Think of anything you love doing.
You might take your sweet time to do it like a Zen monk.
But you’re doing a great job.

Speed is practice. Awareness. A decision to do the damn thing, no matter how much it sucks or how dull it is.

Speed = Higher Agency

Agency is simply the skill to get from point A to point B as fast, simple, lean, economically, and frictionlessly as possible.

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Here’s how to put speed on your side:

1. Define “Done”

If you don’t define what “done” looks like, your brain will keep the task open forever.
Set clear deliverables. No vagueness. No “I'll know when it's ready.”

2. Use Parkinson’s Law

Work expands to fill the time you give it. So give it less.
Compress the container. Turn it into a challenge.
And use my timer (free) to do so.
It’s the ugliest timer you’ll ever love. And it works.

3. Remove Distractions

When it's time to work:

• No phone

• No tabs

• No console

• No shiny toys on your desk

Create a boring box:
→ Blank room.
→ No alternatives.
→ Only the task.

Your brain will beg for stimulation. The task becomes the only exit.
This works. Every single time you use it.

4. Use Time Blocks Instead Of Multitasking

Try this:
Day 1 → 60 minutes of 3 tasks in multitasking mode
Day 2 → 3 x 20-minute blocks (same 3 tasks, one per block)

Try it once.
I don’t think you’ll ever go back to multitasking.

5. Know When To Slow Down (On Purpose)

You don’t have to be fast all the time. Sometimes slow is the move:
Craft. Presence. Joy. Awareness.
Just make sure it’s not fear disguised as perfectionism.

6. Train Your BS Radar

Are you in a ritual mode or plain avoidance?
Are you preparing or stalling?
Optimizing or hiding?

Be honest.
Audit your time.
Audit your work.

Speed up not to rush but to stop rotting in wait mode.

7. Make It A Game

Gamify the process:

🎮 Beat your last score
🎮 Track your blocks
🎮 Make it playful, not painful

You’ll move faster and enjoy it.

8. Learn When To Cut Corners

I’ve made two indie movies with friends. We had a great time doing them.
No one had professional experience or gear.
Yet, we pulled it off.

Check here if you want (sorry, no English subs, it's in Greek).

The point (apart from shamelessly promoting my movies)?

We solved problems fast, and we shipped. While having fun building.
So if you must, cut corners.
Just don’t do it blindly.
There are always some you can afford to cut.

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Be permissionless. Know the basic rules. Break the right ones. And have fun building.

Thanks for reading. See you in the next one.

Lifeward,
George

PS
Mentioning it again in case you skimme the whole thing (no judging).
If you love timers, I made a Pareto-inspired tool.
It works. As long as you use it.

PPS
If you’re into high-agency living, I started a subscription model.
No pressure. It comes with a free trial.