I recently purchased a typewriter.
But unlike most technology, I bought it not to make me faster, but to make me slower.
Typically, we get new gadgets because they make us more efficient. A new computer or phone means I can do work faster, communicate more easily, or enjoy entertainment with less friction. We buy devices on the promise of their saving us time.
But in some domains efficiency can be the enemy.
That’s what I found with my writing.
A few years ago, I began writing these essays longhand, editing them by hand, and only as a final step typing them into the computer. I think that slowness improved my writing. So now I’ve made the process even slower by adding a typewriter into the mix.
Here’s my new process:
- Write a first draft longhand in my notebook with a pencil or fountain pen
- Edit the handwritten draft with another color
- Type a second draft on the typewriter
- Edit that by hand
- Type it a third time into the computer
If that seems inefficient, it’s because it is. But I’m convinced it is better for the slowness.
But efficiency can be the enemy in more areas than just writing.
The most important things are not improved but rather diminished when we attempt to make them more efficient.
- Craftsmanship is inefficient.
- Prayer is inefficient.
- Art is inefficient.
- Love is inefficient.
Relationships, spiritual growth, and work I can be proud of—all of it takes time. And I want to take that time.
One of the lies of secular productivity is that efficiency is the ultimate goal. But apply efficiency to everything and you soon find you’ve drained your work of its quality and your life of its joy.
Efficiency has its place. We use efficiency to free up time. But the question is, what are you freeing up that time for? For me, the reason I have the slow, undisturbed time to do my writing in this slow, inefficient way is because I’ve found ways to be efficient in other areas of life.
The point of time management isn’t to save time for the sake of saving time, it’s to free up time from less important things to reinvest in more important things.
Efficiency is how you make time to be inefficient in the things that matter most.
