There is a big difference between moving swiftly and rushing.

One is a build up of energy that accelerates you forward. It is agile, guided and aware.

The other is a lashing out that jerks you from where you are. It is unguided, haphazard, and blind.

When a client tells me to “put a rush on it.” The way that translates to me is either a) you’re obviously going to take your sweet time getting anything done so I’m putting pressure on you to get you to work harder, or b) sacrifice quality so I can turn this over to someone else’s responsibility.

When I have to be somewhere at a specific time and I rush myself out the door, I’m going to forget something, leave something behind or make another mistake.

Rushing discourages mindfulness and encourages recklessness. Which in turn increases the likelihood of a mistake or an accident.

I see it time and again as a dancer; when working aerials there is a certain mindfulness that has to be present regardless of how fast it goes otherwise someone gets hurt, someone gets dropped, or it just doesn’t work well and extra energy has to be spent to correct the mistakes that were made by rushing.

In business its the same thing. When you rush a product, a service, or a deliverable out the door you are setting yourself up for unforeseen accidents and mistakes that could have been avoided with a little more mindfulness.

This is not to go against the notion of agile development and prototyping, rather it is an essential part of it.

To move swiftly one must build momentum. Building momentum creates sustainable energy to continue moving the project forward even if accidents or mistakes are made, it gives the project inertia. Rushing is unsustainable in that the energy expended in a rush are not renewed by the process itself and momentum is not built, it is sacrificed and inertia is not gained.

Notice when you are rushing, even the little things. It feels different from doing quickly, there’s an impetus to get to the next instead of doing itself. Expand that awareness from little things in your day to your work, your relationships and other aspects of your life.

Don’t be afraid of laying back a little on life and taking the time it needs. Sometimes even the realization that you are rushing gives you a moment to take a single breath and then you are no longer rushing. You’ve caught up with yourself.

Build momentum, gain inertia, move swiftly with ease and awareness. Leave the rush behind.

This morning I watched Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk from the Long Beach TED conference.  When I watch a TED Talk, I have my notebook out, pen in hand.  I take notes – all the time now.

In the first thirty seconds I was already scribbling down a quote that pulled at me.

“I profoundly believe that the power of food has a primal place in our homes that binds us to the best bits of life.”

At that point I knew I was in.  Food has a profound impact in my life, in many ways.

I grew up helping in the kitchen and the garden with my grandmother, or at dinner time with my parents.  You either helped cooked or you did the dishes.  I hated doing dishes, so I generally preferred cooking.

We didn’t eat out often, we indulged occasionally in american Chinese food or pizza, but more often it was just homespun recipes from memory or from the bank of index cards my mother keeps in a drawer near the microwave.

As a child I was a slow, picky eater.  But somehow, as I grew up, I came to love food in an entirely different way.  Foodie may be too strong of a word, I can’t really afford to be a real foodie, but I do love the act of preparing and enjoying quality food.  Occasionally I indulge in a fine dining experience or dropping too much money on a trip to Whole Foods, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

There’s no guilt involved in my food life, I eat what tastes good and makes me feel good.  That process of selection has eliminated most processed foods, high volumes of carbs and starches, refined sugars.  My diet consists mostly of vegetables, fruit, nuts and animal protein (fish, meat, eggs, cheese).  But I’ve trained my taste buds to appreciate fresh whole foods; the average grocery store in the U.S. is 75% wasted space to me – I ring the outer edges where the produce, meats and fruits are and ignore that blackhole of processed foods, canned goods, pasta.

Our tastebuds are trained by what we eat: those who eat bland food continue to enjoy bland food; those who eat fast food come to enjoy fast food;  and so on.

I digress.

When it comes to food our upbringing, our emotions, our memories are all tied together.  Much of food is tied to our sense of smell and our sense of smell connects the deepest with our memories.

In some ways that is why food makes me cry.

When I prepare a cup of tea, properly, and sit and smell it, a flood of memories of a time in Montreal comes back to me.  There was a time when I couldn’t drink tea for almost a year because of those memories.

When I smell the sweet cinnamon of monkey bread the years of Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings leap back at me; sitting at a the kitchen table quartering Pillsbury biscuits and rolling them in sugar and cinnamon.

Food conjures memories, emotions and a deep connection to where we came from.

In a sense, that is why food makes me cry.

But there is yet another sense that food makes me cry.  And that is when I watch or read or work with people involved in the food and food justice world.

My intensely emotional and positive engagement with food is lacking for a massive percentage of the U.S. population, not even considering the rest of the world for the moment.

When we consider the amount of time we invest in food – deciding what to eat, where to eat, when to eat, how to eat, and the act of getting or preparing food – it adds up as one of the largest activities that consumes our time.  If that time is not positive, enjoyable, rooted in an enjoyment of food that gives us energy and enriches our lives it becomes a massive drain on our lives.

If we don’t have access to fresh whole foods, if we don’t know which fruits and vegetables are which, if we don’t know how to cook simple recipes from fresh foods.  We are denied one of the most powerful and enriching experiences of our lives.

Food can improve our own life and well-being, but it ties so deeply into our shared experiences, that the act of gathering, preparing and sharing food if lost severs us from our families, friends and communities.

When I see the loss of food culture in this way, not in the high flying foodie way, this makes me cry.

This is why food makes me cry.

I don’t have a home office space or coworking arrangement regularly so unless I can land a decent desk at a hosts house, the coffee shop around the corner usually gets six to eight hours of my time on a regular basis.

How do I survive and still manage to get work done?

1. Choose the Right Cafe

Finding the right café is a task of great importance for me.  Everyone has their favorite coffee or tea shop in a city but that doesn’t mean it’s your favorite working spot.

Decide on what kind of atmosphere and features you need to get your work done and make your own decision.  Being comfortable in your working space is essential, even if that working space is a public, high traffic, bustling coffee shop.

For me that list includes: clean, quiet, modern, good free WiFi, high quality tea and coffee, small food items, personable staff, desk sized tables, local establishment, and power outlets.

If you’re new to an area I highly recommend scoping out new coffee shops on Yelp.com.

2. Get Headphones

I can’t stress this one enough.  Whether you actually listen to music or not when you work isn’t the issue.

Wearing headphones helps isolate you from the flurry of distractions and bustle that occur in a café.  Not only that but it’s also far less likely that anyone is going to approach you and interrupt your work flow when you have headphones on.

As for jams to work to, well I like my RJD2 or Ratatat Pandora stations, but whatever helps you work and focus.  Generally lyric-free tracks are the best to keep you in a flow.

3. Order An Extra Glass Of Water

While I do love my espresso, coffee and chai tea, an extra glass of water keeps me hydrated and cool.

It also keeps my budget in check by reducing the impulse to immediately go get another fresh $3 chai when I finish the one in front of me.  That glass of water gives me another 8-16 ounces of liquid to keep my hand-to-mouth habit in check for at least twenty minutes.

One additional benefit, that not everyone would call a benefit, drinking a lot of water while I work gives me a good reason to get up every once in a while – to go to the restroom.

4. Sit At A Desk In A Chair

There is that image of work at home writers propped up in bed with their computer sitting on their lap, or of a freelancer at a coffeeshop lounging on the couch doing their work.

However, it isn’t very good for your body or your work.

Sitting at a desk or desk-like table provides enough workspace for you to spread out a bit, keep notebooks, pens, phone or whatever other accoutrements within quick reach.  Try to find a desk or table that is about 28 to 33 inches in height with a correspondingly fitting chair (the taller you are, the taller the table should be).

You may almost feel like you’re working instead of chilling out in a café.

5. Have Good Posture & Breathe

To add to the anti-couch argument, slouching over your work or in your chair isn’t an ideal position for your body or your brain.

Think about maintaining the three natural curves of your spine while sitting up.  Weight should be resting equally on both of your sit bones, your feet should be resting flat on the ground.  Your shoulders should be wide (i.e. not hunched forward or unnecessarily pinched backwards) and your upper body relaxed.  Make sure your work is at an adequate viewing distance and not too elevated or close (I prefer my computer screen to be about arm length from me).

Lastly, make sure to check in with your breathing every so often.  I find by focusing on my breath for even 15 seconds relaxes my whole body and clears my mind–work can be stressful.  I prefer using a combination of diaphragmatic breathing and lateral breathing when I focus on my breath.

6. Look Like An Idiot

And by that I mean: stretch, exercise and move around.

Sometimes it’s completely acceptable to get up and just shake around a bit.  It may even be fun and silly – you could laugh.

Exercise helps your blood flow.  Including to your brain.  And while you’re working you’re hopefully using that.

Some exercises and stretches that help me survive eight hours in café are:

• Pushups: Yes, not your usual out in public activity but knocking out 20 pushups for a break is a great way to get the blood flowing.
• Forward Bend: I find holding this for 30 seconds helps relax my spine (which is often crunched from sitting for so long), reduces fatigue, and stretches the hamstrings and calves (which are in flexion while sitting).
• Triangle Pose: Sitting for leaves your hips in flexion for long periods of time and I find this helps me stretch out my hips.  For those less inclined to go all out, standing side bends are also an option.

7. Eat Healthy Snacks

Rather than stuffing your face with sugary pastries for eight hours, and it can be tempting, focus on healthier snacks.

Eat foods that are less processed and have little or no added sugar so you don’t have the buzz and crash and the lack of focus that will inevitably result in. This also means don’t pour half the sugar bowl into your cup of coffee.

A short list of snacks that help me survive in a café are:

• Raw Almonds: These are one of my all time favorite snacks.  A handful of these staves off hunger, keeps my energy levels from crashing and they taste great.  If you aren’t an almond fan, try other varieties of nuts although stay away from the salted and sweetened ones.
• Fresh Fruit: Really, how could you go wrong with an apple, banana or bowl of berries?  They are delicious, appease that sweet tooth, and give you a little rush of freshness.  A lot of cafés have fresh fruit, if they don’t suggest that they add it to their menu, or just go to a little grocery and pick up one yourself.
• Yogurt & Granola: Should I explain this one or can you guess?  It’s healthy, filling and you’ve got so many options for flavors.  An old standby.

8. Befriend the Staff

If you’re anything like me, you end up going to the same café over and over again.  Once you’ve found the right one, you’re going to be there a lot.

So play nice with the staff, tip well if you do that in your country, and clean up after yourself.  They are there supporting your work environment so you should support their work environment in return.

Say “hello”, make small talk, and don’t slam your money down on the counter and stalk back to your computer.  If you keep coming back they’ll recognize you, and if they don’t like you, well, you might as well find a new right café.

Some of my favorite experiences are when I arrive at a café that I frequent often and they know my name and what I normally order.  Sometimes they’ll even start making it as I walk up in.

9. Don’t Slam Espresso

This is my last tip, don’t slam espresso like you’re doing shots on your birthday in Thailand.  Caffeine is a great stimulant, don’t get me wrong, but like any drug, it is still a drug.

Relying on caffeine to get you through the day is going to burn you out eventually.  You’ll be craving your next hit the moment you wake up–and we’ve all seen those people or been one, zombies until they’ve had one or two cups of coffee.

If you’re not trying to join the living dead, use moderately.  If you’re already addicted, I highly recommend breaking the habit.  I did over the summer and my energy levels are far more even than they used to be.  Include a little stretching and exercise, drink a glass of water or have a healthy snack when that urge for another cup of coffee hits and you may find that it’s not as scary as you think it would be.

What are your café survival tips?

Flickr photo by lulugaia.