An Unhurried Life: The Practice of Slowing

I'm currently studying John Ortberg's book The Life You've Always Wanted. Chapter 5 really caught my attention. Just think, to have an Unhurried Life! In 2007 there's so much guilt associated with not hurrying, like if we don't, we're wasting our life and the time we have left. John asked his friend what he needed to do to be spiritually healthy and the answer was one of my favorite quotes, "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life."
When I read that I looked up from the book to see if he was somewhere watching me! We become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we don't make time for God, or prayer, or giving thanks, or especially reading His Word. When I'm hurried and distracted, I know the very first thing to go is my time with God, yet if you asked me, I'd tell you it's what's MOST important to me. I think many of us are like that, so what can we do about it?
The answer is to just slow down. Rushing isn't the answer - that just leads to forgetting things, doing a sloppy job, being short-tempered, and sometimes...speeding tickets. With the way we're always rushing, you'd think we'd end up with hours of spare time left over, but do we? No, we never do, so now we're just as busy, still out of time, and we're further from God than we know we should be. So how do we discipline ourselves not to rush?
Like any discipline, it takes practice until it becomes a habit. Step 1 is to practice slowing, we could put ourselves in a position throughout the day that makes us wait - in the longer grocery line, not zigzagging in and out of traffic to pass everyone and be first, to take time to do a job right instead of just fast.
Step 2 is to practice solitude. If it's not part of my day normally, then I'll start with 5 minutes a day. First or Last thing of the day works best. Just take 5 minutes to be still (not easy for my dominating, task-oriented personality). Close your eyes, take a deep breath or two, say hello to God, review your day with Him. Ask for forgiveness where you failed, ask Him to help with your struggles, thank Him for the blessings He's given you, and ask for guidance to do what you should be doing - and to forget about the rest of unnecessary things that aren't in our control anyway.
Try it for a week and see if it makes a difference. I'm going to. I'll let you know how it went.