Slow work: Embracing the time to let ideas percolate

Resisting the urge to push our work into the world too soon.

Open call for fellow marketers! I am currently working on a field guide on value creation in the b2b space. As part of my research, I am consolidating experiences, trends, observations — and am looking for additional perspectives. This is your opportunity to join in:

If you are a marketer, communicator, digital maker or professional responsible for creating content or products for your company’s b2b customers, I’d love to hear your thoughts via this mini survey. It will only take a few minutes.

And as a token of appreciation, participants will receive a complimentary (free) copy of the field guide once it’s published.

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We are in such a rush all the time. A rush to get to work, join that meeting on time, read the day’s headlines, answer that text, get the new Nikes before they sell out.

There is a rush to creating that has us caught in a rapid cycle of sharing, launching, shipping our work. From 0 to 60 in 1.2 seconds. Faster, bigger, more, now. Repeat.

I feel queasy if I spend a week not putting anything out into the world, either in form of client work (hello, weekly milestones) or sharing on social media. I feel lazy, slightly inadequate.

I am the first to admit, though: Some things just take time. The research that needs another round of deep analysis. The insight that is not yet an insight. Or the idea that needs more zest.

I sometimes have to force myself to listen to my inner voice, hold a mic up to that rebellious whisper that tells me, “it’s ok, ideas are still percolating, it’s not ready yet.”

When did slow creation become a sign for unproductivity? We may have forgotten what history’s great creators have taught us: the slow insight is worthier than the speedy conclusion.

Instead, today we are pushed to hit publish quickly — and often. Weekly, daily even.