September 25, 2026 Post by : Editorial Slow Living

I used to be proud of how much I could do at once. I'd answer emails while the bread proofed, listen to a podcast while I weeded, and mentally plan dinner while I collected eggs. I thought I was being efficient. What I was actually doing was being present for none of it. The bread rose, the weeds came out, the eggs got collected, but I wasn't really there for any of it.

The chickens are the ones who broke me of the habit. You can't rush a broody hen off a nest without consequences. You can't collect eggs while scrolling your phone without dropping one. You can't fill a waterer while thinking about a work deadline without soaking your shoes. The flock demands a kind of single-minded attention that I had forgotten how to give anything.

What the Garden Taught Me About Attention

Once I started paying attention to the chickens, I started noticing how distracted I was everywhere else. In the garden, I'd pull weeds while listening to a podcast, and I'd miss the fact that the tomatoes were starting to show signs of blight until it was nearly too late. I'd water the beds on autopilot and soak the same corner twice while the far end stayed dry.

So I started experimenting with doing one thing at a time. Just one. When I'm in the garden, I'm in the garden. No earbuds, no phone in my pocket, no mental grocery list running in the background. Just my hands in the soil and the sun on my back. It felt almost uncomfortable at first, like I was wasting time. But slowly, it started to feel like the opposite. I noticed more. I enjoyed more. I finished tasks faster because I wasn't constantly switching gears.

The same thing happened in the kitchen. I stopped trying to cook dinner while also answering messages and folding laundry. I just cooked. I chopped the onions and smelled them hitting the pan. I stirred the pot and watched the sauce thicken. I tasted as I went. Dinner got better, and so did my mood.

Bringing the Practice to the Coop

The coop is where it all comes together now. When I do my evening rounds, that's all I'm doing. I'm not listening to anything. I'm not planning tomorrow. I'm topping off the water, scattering a little scratch, doing a head count, and closing things up for the night. It takes maybe fifteen minutes, and it's become the most grounding part of my day.

The chickens don't multitask. They scratch, they eat, they dust bathe, they roost. One thing at a time, all day long, and they seem perfectly content. There's a lesson in that, and I'm trying to learn it.

If you're feeling stretched thin, I'd gently suggest picking one daily task and doing it with your full attention. Not forever, not as a productivity hack. Just as an experiment. Water the garden without your phone. Cook dinner without a screen. Do the coop chores and nothing else. See what you notice. See how it feels. You might find, like I did, that the slow way is actually the good way.

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