Some people will choose a slower version of something, even if there is a faster version out there. You notice it in the little moments. They’d rather stir something on the stove than push a button, or write a name instead of typing it into their phone. This is not because of old-fashioned thinking.
Many of them love their gadgets. There are just some things that feel better done by hand, and they are in no rush to give up on those things. Here are seven habits people who like longer routes tend to exhibit.
1. They still write things down on paper
Give them a phone with the perfect note-taking app and they’ll still reach for their pen. Shopping lists, phone numbers, things they need to remember for tomorrow. It’s all on paper.
Part of it is memory. Research shows that handwritten things tend to be encoded more deeply than typed ones, which may be part of the reason handwritten notes are easier to recall. But part of it is just the feel of things. The small feeling of satisfaction as the pen moves across the paper and the task is finally completed.
You’ll find it on the kitchen counter, a small mat covered with vague reminders. Their phones handle it all. They just don’t want it, and they’re done pretending otherwise.
2. There are no shortcuts in cooking
Ask them about the canned sauce and they’ll smile politely and get back to chopping onions. Not because the jar is wrong, but because they’d rather do it this way for the long haul.
They would cook something that might have come from the bag for hours. They peeled and waited, tasting as they went. The kitchen got loud, warm and a bit chaotic but they didn’t seem to mind.
Some of these have to do with food outcomes. Many are not. It’s standing there with the smell filling the house, the feeling of making something out of parts rather than assembling it out of a box. Dinner turned into afternoon and that was the plan.
3. Handwritten note
They don’t print labels or send quick texts when it comes to cards. They sat down and wrote it down.
Birthday cards, thank you notes, a scrap of paper left on the counter for someone still sleeping. The handwriting is not always neat. This is not the point. The point is, a person’s actual hand touched the page, and the person receiving it would know it.
A text message takes ten seconds. A note takes a few minutes, a stamp, and a decision whether to bother. For these people, trouble is everything. This is the meaningful part.
4. When coffee takes ten minutes
There’s a pod machine that can give them a cup of coffee in thirty seconds. They had a kettle, a grinder and a small ceremony.
The beans are freshly ground. After the water boils, it sits for a while and then flows wherever it goes. They slowly inverted and circled, watching it bloom. The whole thing took a lot longer than it needed to, which is exactly why they loved it.
Morning coffee becomes a pause before the day begins to grind them down. You’ll notice that they guard these ten minutes, sometimes quite intensely. This actually has nothing to do with caffeine. It’s about resolutely refusing to rush through a certain period of time in the morning.
5.They hang the washed clothes to dry
The dryer works fine. Weather permitting, they will still hang the laundry on the line.
It’s rhythmic. Shake each piece of clothing out and reach up, the sheets smell like something most dryer settings can’t quite replicate. It takes longer and depends on the sky, which kind of makes them start looking at the sky.
Of course, for some, it’s about the electricity bill. But watch them do it and you’ll realize there’s more to it than that. Garden, quiet, arms stretched gently overhead. A boring chore becomes a ten-minute outdoor activity that they might not have spent otherwise.
6. It’s still a long way home.
Given the choice between the fast route and the nice route, they would choose the nice route more often, which makes no real sense.
Walk along the river rather than along the main road. The back alley would add fifteen minutes to the trip. They’ll notice a turning tree, a house with a strange blue door, a cat sleeping on a warm wall.
It drives productive people a little crazy. What’s the point of being late? But this is the wrong question for them. The point is never just about arriving. The distance of the walk is as important as the destination and they would rather not skip it to save a few minutes.
7. Repair rather than replace
A button fell off and they threaded the needle. The chair started shaking and they took out the glue. Our instinct is to fix something rather than throw it in the trash and order another one by Friday.
Some of it is frugality, which they’ll happily admit. But there are also those who stubbornly refuse to view everything as disposable. The old jacket was replaced with a new zipper, and another five good years passed.
You’ll notice that they tend to know how things fit together. They’ve torn them down enough over the years. As the kind of person who can solve a small problem with his own two hands and move on, it’s truly satisfying.
Those who have always chosen the slow path usually do not find it difficult or precious. They discovered that some of the fun was in doing things rather than in completing them, and they preferred not to leave all of that to a machine.
Next time you find someone taking a long walk, it might be worth asking them what they got out of it.
