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Dude, Bill Gates rocks. “You’ll think I’m joking, but it’s encouraged for management in Microsoft to imitate this rocking behaviour — it’s supposed to aid thinking. I’d never be able to keep a straight face at a meeting.”

This was the first in a series of reactions to an online video that shows a meeting at Microsoft chaired by Bill Gates. Gates is seen silently rocking back and forth in his chair for a few minutes before the start of the meeting. He is known to do this with the purpose of getting everyone in the room to the same rhythm — the staffers are expected to use that time to slow people down if they have been rushing around getting too many things done, or to speed up their rhythm to match his.

I first read about Bill Gates’ ‘rocking’ habit in Stephan Rechtschaffen’s Time Shifting: Creating More Time to Enjoy Your Life. Rechtschaffen, founder of the Omega Institute for Holisitic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York, suggests that we learn to slow down from the high-paced lifestyle of work and society by consciously making a change in our rhythm of functioning. This inspiring book shows how important it is to maintain a steady, firm and sure rhythm of life.

Working 12-hour days may be a status symbol to some, given that they get immense pride from their “investment” in work. But at the cost of personal time, it is but, says Rechtschaffen, a strong indicator of stress. Working in short gasps with intense energy may bring impressive short-term results, but will ultimately lead to your health failing you, he points out.

It’s like a frog in a large pan of water set on low heat. By the time the water gets to boiling point, it’s too late to get out of the pan. According to Rechtschaffen, the only way to deal with this is to deliberately slow down from the “hyper-productivity rhythm” and to carve out personal time. Catch hold of those “personal time robbers” and show them right out the door.

I read this book with much interest and here, I admit, that it must have been an uncomfortable sense of guilt that kept me engaged through the book. I’m guilty of being on the hyper-productivity rhythm and not spending time with myself. I’m also guilty of finding comfort in a wicked feeling that there are tons out there like me. But continue to break the shackles, I must. And keep trying, I will.

—Sumaa Tekur is an editor with DNA. Views expressed are personal.