5 Simple Life Hacks for Slowing Down When the Pace Picks Up

You check the calendar again, sure you’ve accidentally overbooked something. You’ve got a million things to do on the one day you’re actually home, but you keep going in circles, touching all the projects but finishing none of them.

You’re living alongside your people but see each other mostly in passing. You’re each in your own world, showing up, doing the things, but the fabric of your connection is fraying.

You wish you were present and thriving, but the reality is that you’re barely surviving—and it’s not even quite summer yet.

Outside the air is growing warmer and the daylight lingers longer as if inviting you too to slow down and embrace moments you’ve taken for granted. You long to accept the invitation, step outside and tip your face skyward, let slow, deep breaths of outside air expand your lungs. But the nagging to-do’s won’t quiet down, and you relent.

How can you find time to connect with your neighbors when your own family needs more attention? It feels like anything more you add to your day will tip you overboard.

I get it. I’ve felt the weight of too much to do stretching me thin. I’ve been distracted with what I need to do next and forgotten to be present with the people right in front of me. I don’t balance my life perfectly, by any means. But I’m learning that I need to define a direction if I want to make progress. I need to know where I’m going if I don’t want to stay where I am.

Could we make space to talk about this? How we prioritize people even when the days are long and full. How mission is a mindset, not an activity, a rhythm, not an add-on. How to slow down when the pace of our lives picks up.

5 simple life hacks to help you slow down

1. Bookend your day with a morning and night routine

I’ve been the one highly resistant to a morning routine, so I get how it might sound restrictive. Several years ago, I finally gave it a try, and I’m often surprised both by how freeing and life-giving it is, and by how much I look forward to this set-apart time every day.

My morning rhythm looks like an outlined schedule that’s flexible and takes advantage of habit-stacking (a concept introduced by James Clear in Atomic Habits). During my first 25-minute block, I get out of bed, drink my green superfood energy powder (that’s my version of coffee—stick with coffee if that’s your thing!), and do 10 minutes of a HIIT workout. The next 25-minute block is my time in prayer, the Word, gratitude, and a spiritual formation book. It’s a routine I adapted from ideas by both Emily P. Freeman and Ann Voskamp, and you can learn more about it here. The last 25-minute block is my designated writing time.

The routine is flexible in that I can shorten each segment, or get started later if I need to. Yet even when I have to adapt the blocks of time, I’ve stacked the habits so I always know what comes next—and what I need to complete before I can check email, social media, or my to-do list.

More recently, I took Rebekah Lyon’s advice in Rhythms of Renewal to also create a night routine. For me, this looks like setting an alarm for 30 minutes before I intend to go to bed to remind me to slow down. It also means I don’t touch my phone once I climb into bed. I’ve found I sleep much more soundly when I fall asleep at the same time each night and don’t scroll or answer any messages once I’ve settled in for the night.

How about you? How might having guardrails on the beginning and end of your day help you feel less empty and worn out?

2. Weigh the consequences of your yeses and nos

I get the pressure to say yes to everything. The volunteer opportunities. Sports and after-school activities for the kids. Another project. Another thing that won’t get done unless somebody takes it on. Lysa TerKeurst’s book, The Best Yes, helped me see that there are consequences to saying yes to everything. Weighing the repercussions of what you give your yes and what you turn down will help you navigate which are your own best yeses. Lysa says it like this:

Whenever you say yes to something, there is less of you for something else. Make sure your yes is worth the less.

Lysa TerKeurst

3. Schedule unscheduled time

Summer days can fly by in the blink of an eye, and I’ve found that unless I schedule some unscheduled time, that margin disappears. White space gives you time to reconnect with God, family, and neighbors. It allows you to offer the gift of availability to those around you. It creates opportunities for organic discipleship through natural conversations in your neighborhood. Unscheduled time also invites you remember that missional living is is an overflow of who God says you are, not activities that keep you busy or make you look on the outside like you’ve got it all together.

4. Pay attention to the people you’re with

A fourth way we can slow down even when the pace of life picks up is to be intentional about paying attention to the people right in front of us. “Wherever you are, be all there!” as Jim Elliott famously said. This means we’re looking out beyond ourselves and the things we’ve got to do next, choosing to notice others. We’re listening. We’re leaning into the stories. We’re asking questions. We’re showing with our words, expressions, and time that the people we are with matter to us.

5. Invite others to be part of what you’re already doing

Inviting others into what you are already doing is key because this is where the life-on-life stuff happens. If you’re too busy to add a whole lot onto your schedule, chances are your neighbors feel the same way. Take inventory of the things you do throughout your week. Which of those things could you invite a neighbor or someone you’re discipling to join? Perhaps a trip to the pool or park? A library or grocery store run? A meal?

Drop the pretenses and let others get close enough to know what you’re really like as you go through the rhythms of your week. Open up about the conversations you and God are having as you welcome others to be part of some of the things you’re already doing.

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A blessing for busy summer days

When you feel overwhelmed, may you turn towards the One who stays with you, who still loves your distracted and hurried heart, who calls you to rest in Him and know that it’s never about what you can do in your own strength or who you are without Him.

When your calendar gets chock-full, may you open conversation with Him about where to schedule in some white space.

When your to-do’s push away the people right in front of you, may you have open eyes to truly see them.

When you’re tempted to say yes to all the things, may you seek wisdom on which are your best yeses.

May your summer be richly relational. May God be in all that ripples out from your life. May you draw close to Him so others can imitate you as you imitate Him.

Just a friend over here in your corner,

Change your actual life in less than 5 minutes per day!

You can change your actual life in less than 5 minutes a day because baby steps truly can change the trajectory of your life. If you want 2021 to be the year you actually start living on mission in your neighborhood, this little book (available as a paperback and on Kindle) will help you get there. Each of the 30-day devotions takes but a few minutes to read, but they will lead to lasting life change.

Wish you knew your IRL (in-real-life) neighbors?