What does Proofreading have to do with Slow Living and Mindset?

Imagine this.

You’ve poured your heart and soul into your copy. It could be a new course you’ve created, a grant application for an initiative that could truly change people’s lives or make a positive impact to the planet. You have been working for hours to fine-tune your creation into something you love, and your mind is so tired, you want to meet the deadline, and all you want to do is get it out there. So, you hit ‘send’ or ‘publish’ ….

The next morning you excitedly log on and open your work up, just to see, and it’s glaring you in the face: the typos you’ve made even though you know exactly how to spell that word and use punctuation properly. The paragraph that’s left out a crucial statistic or story that would speak to funders, or the exact call to action that would help clients connect with you. Why? Because you didn’t slow down and leave any breathing room between writing and publishing or sending.

It's not your fault. We have been taught that things need to be done right now. Often, when we are also emotionally connected to our work, it’s hard not to feel a level of anxiety about the quality of our writing or what we hope to achieve with our creation. How we hope it will be perceived. How it will speak to our audience.

Anxiety…our inner worrier/warrior…picks up that bow and arrow and shoots cortisol into our bloodstream, creating a sense of urgency and increasing stress levels even more. And if you are working for a not-for-profit or on your own small business, the mental load you’re carrying is often doubled. During my decades of working within community organisations, when funding wasn’t granted to continue a role, aspects of these roles carried over to the workload of employees whose contracts were continuing. As a creative — first as a burlesque dancer and now as an entrepreneur — a lot of the time it’s the excitement that makes it hard to go slow.

In his article, ‘Cortisol and Cognition: The Effects of Stress on the Brain’, 2022, Aaron Tribby, MS, says that high cortisol and chronic stress can show up in changes in cognition such as attentional challenges, slower processing, and muddled thinking. Not the best set up to give a great proofread.

I think now may be a good time to give a clear definition of what proofreading is. Did you know that it actually occurs after editing? It’s not simply about correcting spelling mistakes and grammar missteps. It’s the final polish of a text before it’s published or sent wherever it needs to go. An editing and proofreading package ensures that your narrative, values, characters, structure, and content are consistent and organised as a beautiful whole, and that spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalisation, and formatting are all correct. It also ensures that copy and referencing are aligned with the writer’s specified guides. For example, I use the Australian Style Guide for my own personal copywriting.

Louise Harnby, fiction editor and proofreader, talks about how important mindset is in proofreading. She talks about how hard it was to go from her previously fast-paced role in marketing to ‘following a brief, pedantic punctuating and a careful, methodical, almost plodding attention to detail’. She discusses how she had to learn to slow down, take a systematic approach, and put her work away for a while before looking at it again. (‘Why should you bother with professional proofreading training?’, 2014.)

And here is where slow living can help you. ‘Slow living is a lifestyle that emphasizes taking a slower, more mindful approach to all aspects of everyday life.’ This is a quote from one of my favourite online newsletters, The Good Trade. (‘What is Slow Living?’, Natale Gale, 2022.) Many of us entrepreneurs started our own businesses because we wanted to embrace slow living and spend time with people and on projects that light us up, and regenerate, not deplete us.

So, whilst a ‘plodding’ pace may not sound so appealing, when proofreading is combined with the mindset of slow living, it can actually be far more productive, long-term, than getting in and getting it done.

Here is my invitation to you. When you’ve finished your work, set your laptop on sleep, or even shut it down for the evening, go and take a walk around the neighbourhood. Play with your child for fifteen minutes. Make yourself a cup of tea. Take a shower. Then come back, take a few deep breaths, think about what you’d intended to say, and re-read your copy.

Too busy? Not your idea of a good time? Then outsource. There are many copywriters, proofreaders and editors who’d love to ease your mental load. I am one of them, so please feel free to contact me with any questions. I’d love to help.

One quick note on using AI for proofreading. If you’re confident with it and all you want is a spelling and grammar check, go for it. I’ll be writing an article soon that will help you to use it effectively.

But if you are deeply attached to your work, use a human being. I know that a lot of technology is marketed as “intuitive”. But text predict is not the same as attunement. A human being is someone you can connect with, and the right proofreader will use their intuition as well as their intellect. And if you choose someone whose values align with yours, they will care about the things you do and go that extra mile to help you. And who knows who else they may be able to connect you with? AI can’t do that.