When you feel pressed for time, it’s normal to hurry. But being in a hurry doesn’t always save you time in the long run. When you’re rushing, you don’t always think straight. You forget things. You make more mistakes. And the result is rushing ahead can actually slow you down.
I can think of several occasions I’ve rushed out the door because I was in a hurry to get somewhere but forgot something I needed to take with me. And so I had to return to retrieve it, which delayed me even more.
Other times, I’ve been doing a project around the house, and in my rush to finish up, I’ve made a careless mistake. And so I spent even more time fixing the mistake than it would have taken to go a little slower and not make it in the first place.
We hurry about because we feel short on time. But rushing can cost us more of the very time we already feel we’re short on. Refusing to hurry helps prevent time-consuming mistakes, while ironically, being in a hurry can end up costing us more time in the long run.