Lessons from the slow living movement—how to ‘hygge’ your creative process

In 2025, it feels like something is shifting in how people work. Gone is the Girlboss of the late 2010s, with creatives looking for a pace of work (and life) that is slower and more serene. Trends from recent years, like Cottagecore, Cabincore, and the rise of remote working, have coalesced into the popularity of “slow work” and the slow living movement.

So, let’s see what lessons we can learn from the slow living movement and go through some ideas for applying these to your creative process as you choose slow work over the daily grind. And if you think this is the epitome of the ‘lazy girl’ era, think again—a more considered way of working and creating could be your best strategic business decision yet! Here’s what we’ll cover:

You may have heard the term on social media, but slow living has much older roots than you might think. Before the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, we might imagine a romanticized version of slow living that involved pastoral activities, with more time spent outdoors or huddled around the hearth. The original Cottagecore? Well, the reality for most people was that life was pretty tough, with extended hours spent toiling in the fields to keep families fed and warm. Nonetheless, the recent Cottagecore and Cabincore trends tap into this romantic past, borrowing the idea of life being lived at a slower pace. 

But it was actually in Italy in the 1980s that the slow-living movement was born. Sparked by the opening of the world’s largest McDonald’s branch in Rome, many Italians protested and even brought an (unsuccessful) lawsuit against the fast-food chain. In 1989, a political activist named Carlo Petrini founded the International Slow Food movement with the goal of keeping local food traditions alive and “counteracting the rise of fast life.” 

In 2004, journalist Carl Honoré published In Praise of Slow, a book that challenged the “Cult of Speed” feted in many societies worldwide. He traced the roots of slow living to the convenience culture of Western capitalism in the 2000s—think speed dating, fast food, and iPhones. Everything was moving so quickly that we forgot what it meant to enjoy life. 

Fast-forward (the irony, I know) to today, and the slow living movement has made deep tracks in our culture and everyday lives. Further underpinned by the Danish concept of hygge, a word that loosely translates to a feeling of comfort, cosiness, and self-care, the slow living movement has gone mainstream. 

So, how does living slower translate into slow work? Most of us know about those specters that haunt modern working life—stress and burnout—as well as the clear mental health risks of a poor work-life balance. Indeed, a slow lifestyle has multiple benefits for physical and mental health as it sidelines stressful urgency in favor of careful and considerate actions. That means less daily stress, a lower likelihood of feeling demotivated—or, worse, burning out—and an improved balance between home and work. 

Even those famous for their hard work are opting for a different pace. The ultimate hustler, Beyoncé, has declared that she now works smarter, not harder, after suffering from exhaustion and poor mental health. Actor Tom Holland also chose to slow down, taking a year away from acting to focus on quality time with family and friends. 

Did you know that learning how to slow down at work will benefit not only your well-being but also your productivity? Whether you’re an illustrator, designer, artist, or photographer, adopting lessons from the slow work movement can help you to bring ‘practice’ back into your creative practice, allowing you to cultivate ideas rather than constantly hit short deadlines. 

From a personal perspective, I’ve always been interested in ways of working that differ from the 9-to-5, high-pressure norm. In my book, Passive Active Creative, I look at how creative businesses often burn brightly for only a short time, in part because we tend to focus on quick results—such as a larger client base over a few stable clients—rather than building a more resilient business slowly over time. Creative companies have a reputation for being unstable, but this needn’t be the case if we adopt a slow-and-steady working practice that prioritizes our personal stability as much as the business.

In other words, slowing down is better for our mental health, which also has a knock-on positive effect on our productivity at work.

It’s all well and good to tell you to slow down. I can hear you already: “I have a business to run!” Stay with me. Let’s look at how you could put slow work into practice and what a more hygge workstyle would look like IRL. Top tips ahead.

Slow living is a lifestyle trend, so it’s unsurprising that practicing slow work entails a few lifestyle tweaks. While full Cabincore or off-the-grid living might not be achievable for most, you can certainly bring the spirit of slow living into your workplace, whether at home or in an office or studio setting. 

The culture of ‘fast working’ has conditioned us to think of where we work as being a place that feels entirely separate from home. A long commute, clinical lighting, and overcrowded open-plan floors impact our cortisol (stress) levels and ability to concentrate. A recent study even found that approximately 85% of migraine attacks were caused by fluorescent lighting.

Adopting a slow work switch might mean a change of scene. If you’re lucky enough to work remotely, this could mean relocating to a serene Airbnb in a different city or country or even trying out a rural retreat that stretches the limits of your WiFi access. 

Don’t worry if you can’t drop everything for the nomad life—of course, it’s often more practical (and realistic) to make changes in your immediate surroundings. With this in mind, there’s no time like the present to hygge your workspace and treat where you work as a home away from home. Make it feel like somewhere that offers as much comfort and coziness as your living room and provides space for reflection and creativity. 

Search for ‘hygge workspace’ inspiration; the formula is pretty consistent—think candles, sheepskin rugs over chair backs, and cozy, comforting home studies. However, you hygge aesthetically, and keep in mind the principles of cozy comfort and a gentler feel for both decor and environment. You might want to set aside lots of tech gadgets in favor of a simple setup, with plenty of books, art, and mood boards to help you feel inspired, not distracted.  

Bringing nature into your workspace is also a key part of achieving hygge, but this doesn’t mean you have to live in a cabin in the woods. Houseplants, natural materials such as warm woods and wool rugs, and neutral, earthy paint colors will help your working environment feel more symbiotic with the outdoors.

Another byproduct of the cult of fast working is the association of taking breaks with idleness. It’s essential to prioritize breaks in your working day, but so many of us get used to wolfing down a quick sandwich at our desks in the pursuit of fitting everything into eight hours.

It’s time to rethink the value of taking breaks and making time for thinking rather than doing. After all, a study by Cornell University found that taking purposeful and regular breaks increases energy, productivity, and ability to focus (but it’s also good to be aware that breaks spent scrolling on your phone have the exact opposite effect).

In Sweden, many employees are encouraged to take regular fika breaks, in which everybody within a team steps away from their desk to have a collective coffee and pastries and catch up about non-work things. Top this off with wellness allowances, generous parental leave, and even extra pay for taking a holiday, and it’s no surprise that Scandinavians often hit the news for their enviable work-life balance. 

For creatives, breaks carry even more importance, offering the time to find inspiration and fresh ideas in the gaps between ‘doing’. In our fast-paced world, the value of thinking time has been seriously degraded, with ‘doing time’ being far more normative. But when you consider that some of the most successful artists, musicians, and other creatives were also renowned as great thinkers (we’re talking Leonardo da Vinci, who had an unusual habit of taking 20-minute power naps in-between genius-ing, or Vincent van Gogh, who was a pensive philosopher as well as a mold-breaking painter).   

To really hygge your breaktimes, you’ll need a suitably cozy spot to retreat to. A comfortable armchair (well-worn, ideally), plenty of books, and a ban on tech distractions are good starting points. 

And whatever you do, don’t feel guilty.

I used to work for a tech startup, and everyone there was obsessed with ‘goals’. Goals at work can be helpful guiding points, mainly if you’re working in a team, but obsessive goal-making (and inevitable goal-breaking) can be a shortcut to creative unhappiness.

In the world of slow working, ‘goal’ is a dirty word unless it’s more of a long-term, blue-sky-thinking kind of goal. Yes to the ten-year plan for building a home studio, but no to a goal-driven to-do list that dominates your day. 

It’s better to think of your work as involving tasks in various states of progress and structure your day around one task (or part of a task) at a time. Some tasks will be more pressing (think tax returns and hard deadlines set by a client), so try to get in the habit of noting what needs to be done and what can be a lower priority. 

And because slow working is about focussing on doing fewer things better, restricting the number of tasks you would typically set for yourself is also a good idea. Some things don’t have to be done right now; they can wait until you have the head space to give them your full attention. 

Slow living is all about living in the moment, for the small details, so if you start to focus on practical tasks that can be achieved rather than a long to-do list of overly ambitious goals, you’re giving your brain a break from constant aspiration. Focus on the here and now, and you’ll get much more done!

You might not be completely sold on the idea that actively trying to do less, taking more breaks, and rejecting an overflowing schedule will make you a more motivated and productive creative. But when so much of the research around traditional fast living and fast working points to our lifestyles damaging our physical and mental health, you have to ask: “Maybe it’s time for a rethink?”

Perhaps we’ve all got used to surviving work when it’s clear that artists, designers, and other creatives need thinking time and inspirational surroundings to thrive. Why not make 2025 the year you slow down, embrace the slow work movement, and see if focusing on the present will manifest a more balanced and productive future?

Seeking inspiration? Delve into Cottagecore inspiration on Envato to see what your fantasy slow-living lifestyle could look like, or make a start on calm and collected task planning with a mood board template. And read my article on how I landed my first five design clients (spoiler: taking it slow was part of the process!)