Written by Saurav Risbud. Read more like this at https://conscioused.org/

It’s easy to think that the more work we take on and the faster we do it, the more successful we will become. But in doing so, we are falsely equating speed with progress. Just because you are moving fast does not mean you are moving forward. Slow and steady progress in one direction is much more meaningful than erratic progression in eighteen different directions.

This is neatly captured by a concept from high school physics: the difference between speed and velocity. Speed is a measure of the distance travelled over time. Velocity has the added vector of direction- how fast something gets somewhere. If you run laps around a field and end up where you started, you have moved at a certain speed but with zero velocity.

In work, sports and everything in between, we should aim to maximize velocity over speed. If you are focused on your desired destination, you’ll get there eventually, regardless of how slowly you are travelling. This doesn’t mean that you can’t get where you want to go fast. It just means that you shouldn’t be keeping busy by doing the things that don’t matter.

So what strategies can we implement to maximize our velocity?

Set goals