Cool Down: Getting Further By Going Slower

Before you check your wireless email for the fourth time this hour, ask yourself, is this helping you get further ahead? In his new book, entitled Cool Down: Getting Further by Going Slower, published by John Wiley and Sons, time management and productivity expert Steve Prentice challenges our modern addiction to high-speed activity, especially email and event-to-event thinking. He suggests that people are getting locked inside a loop of surface-level urgencies, and are losing the ability to connect creatively with mentors, clients, even their managers. Working days are getting longer, and the separation between work and life is eroding. This, he calls, “death-in-harness.”

In an effort to find a better way, Steve takes a look at the growing Slow movement that is catching on in Japan and Europe, and asks whether it could possibly take root here, and indeed whether it even should. He takes the concept of “Slow” apart and rebuilds it, using terms, case studies and common sense segments that demonstrate clearly that to get further ahead faster, people do actually need to cool down.

Key Terms found in Cool Down:

• Presenteeism: being at work even though sick or stressed
• Death-In-Harness: constantly treading the same path with no time for improvement
• The Silo Effect: the inability for people to connect and communicate creatively
• Ambient Momentum: the contagious speed of expectation
• Fear of the Loop: the pressure to stay in touch, even during vacations and after hours
• Event-to-Event Thinking: moving from activity to activity without factoring in prep time
• Parkinson’s Law: the Law that makes us think we can fit more into a day than is possible
• Blue Skying: the creative mental process that happens once the mind relaxes

Book Summary:

• The first three chapters highlight the damage that is being caused by a steadily increasing pace of communication and expectation, including the use of wireless email devices. It discusses how an autistic scientist discovered the human capacity for being always “on”, and then describes how the demand for such constant input has led to the inability to think creatively, and to communicate, at a time in history when we need such talents to counter the threats posed by globalization.
• The mid point of the book looks at the current Slow movement, analyzes its roots and its influence, and asks if, or even how it could be introduced in busy North American economies.
• The last few chapters demonstrate the value of cooling down on many different and important areas of life, including, how to connect more effectively with customers, how to talk more productively with your boss, how to build and maintain a career safety net to avoid unemployment, how to sell better, network better, eat better, sleep better, how to turn off and enjoy family time, guilt free.

Readers of Cool Down have access to add-on assessments and tools through the Cool Time website at www.cool-time.com, which also provides a wide variety of free tools, techniques and recommendations

How Can I Use Cool Down in my company?
As an experienced professional speaker, Steve is available to deliver a keynote or a workshop at your company. His vibrant and interactive presentation will allow you to:

• identify opportunities for reconnecting with staff and employees
• take a higher perspective on the position of your company within the local and global markets
• assess the value of high speed technologies such as BlackBerrys and videoconferences
• identify signs of burnout, presenteesim and sub-par performance in employees before they become critical
• improve the morale and output.

PLEASE NOTE: Steve's Presentations are not motivational fluff. They consist of real world techniques and concepts that challenge people to identify new and better techniques that are both implementable and for which there is long-term accountability. His background and professional expertise lies in the worlds of Project Management and Industrial Psychology, which gives him a unique insight into the art of getting things done, and of the people expected to do it. His facts, case studies and action items are real, and Steve himself stands by as a mentor to all the people and companies he speaks to, to ensure successful implementation.