This week I decided to officially stake my claim on this little piece of web and take ownership of my domain name. Once I realised this meant that I was a domain-master as a Seinfeld fan I couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of being Master of my Domain.

After this realisation and thinking it would make a good title for a post I had a little chat with myself – yes those do happen quite often – and decided that taking ownership of the web address was not an interesting topic for the blog. So with that idea shelved it was time to give some thought to what I needed to do now that I had the domain name. While I’ve recently changed the layout of the site it would probably be a good idea to revisit this. Should I have a home page rather than just a list of the latest posts? Is there more I could be doing with categories? Should I organise the old posts and make them easier to browse through? And what about tags? And, and, and, and…

And breathe.

It was time to have another little chat with myself. Yes there is the potential to do more with this site and to improve the structure of it but surely the whole point of becoming a domain-master is to show that I am in this for the long-haul? For the moment I’m enjoying writing and already have several titles sitting in drafts, waiting for me to convert them into fully-fledged posts. So why rush into changing everything now? Just because I can? Surely it’s better to take some time and do it properly.

This seems obvious but actually I think it’s useful to remind ourselves that there is nothing wrong with taking the slow way. People often blame the internet, particularly social media, for this idea of instant gratification and if it’s not happening now then it’s old news. While our constant connectivity has exacerbated this I think there has always been an element of believing that faster is better. If you google synonyms for the two words then it’s not surprising fast is seen as preferable when the suggested alternatives are flying, active or agile. Whereas the replacements for slow are sluggish, dawdling or lagging. It’s no wonder people feel guilty about taking their time over things when this means they could be referred to as torpid rather than supersonic.

Your time starts now!

This idea of speed being of the essence is often reinforced at those cringe-inducing team away days we all loathe. Well I’m assuming the majority of us hate them, I guess someone might like them? The worst part is when you are asked to complete some entirely asinine task – here is a bag of cotton-wool balls and a bunch of cocktail sticks, using only these items create the tallest free-standing structure possible. You have 10 minutes and your time starts now. Logically I know that the task itself is irrelevant and what is actually being assessed is how the team works together – who takes the lead, who has creative ideas, who gets on with it, who is all talk and no action etc etc. However I still find it incredibly frustrating, for many reasons, but the main one is that it proves nothing. These ‘challenges’ are usually given to office workers who rarely have to conjure up creative solutions in a matter of minutes. We are not on the front line, working in A&E or other fields where split-second decisions can save lives. Most of us have the time to research, analyse and discuss all the possible options before arriving at the most suitable solution. The fact that I panicked and decided to just stick a cotton-wool ball and a cocktail stick on my head and claim that made it taller has no baring on my ability to complete my normal job. All these tasks really achieve is making people feel bad because they were not able to think of a solution on the spot. And then make people feel angry for having wasted their time on this futile exercise.

The point of that rather bizarre tangent was to say that while there will be instances where speed is of the essence that doesn’t mean that fast is always best. Nowadays I’m happy to acknowledge this and will often choose to take a slower option. For example the fastest way for me to commute to my office would be to travel by train, alight at the end of the line and then walk for 10 minutes. That may be the fastest way but it is not the best way as I prefer to get off the train a stop earlier and extend the walk to 30/35 minutes. Thus giving myself time to mentally prepare for the day ahead, rather than diving straight in. Similarly with this website, just because I have the option of making lots of changes now, the better way to do it will be to take my time, think about what I want to do (probably whilst walking!) and do it properly, do it the slow way.

Rather than just being master of my domain; I am master of my space and master of my pace.

That’s how I stroll.

• The best laid plans…
• Hiding in plain sight
• Holiday Strolls
• Something is better than nothing
• National Walking Month