I’m an extremely fast paced, frenetic person, but I’m learning to calm down and chill out. In a book I picked up recently this sentence is repeated in every chapter: “Haste is a form of violence.”

Those six words have slapped me across the face a few times lately. I notice that I am in such a rush to get things done that I don’t do them as well as I can. I go through hundreds of support email logs gathering times so I can average my reply speed, and in doing so I see hasty responses that could have been better had I spent just a little more time.

I stand in line for coffee and tap my foot thinking “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Then I realize how violent my need for speed may be. Waiting on the slowest barista ever is only going to cost a few minutes of my day.

I’m trying to stop focusing on a few minutes here and there and instead embrace a chance to lose them, knowing I’ll produce something of quality. (Not quantity.) I hope this is something I never stop learning.