How do I practice slow looking?

The most direct way to practice slow looking is through a focused exercise: Choose one thing you interact with daily — a dashboard you check, a codebase you maintain, a meeting you attend. Tomorrow, spend five minutes observing it in silence before forming any opinion or taking any action. Set a timer. No notes, no conclusions, just looking. Afterward, write down three details you noticed that you normally miss. Compare what five minutes of deliberate observation produced against what your habitual glance typically captures.

Common pitfall: Confusing slow observation with passive observation. You spend twenty minutes staring at something but your mind is elsewhere — planning dinner, rehearsing a conversation, checking the clock. Slow looking requires active, engaged attention directed at the object of observation, not merely the passage of time while physically present. Duration without attention is just waiting.

This practice connects to Phase 5 (Observation Without Judgment) — building it as a repeatable habit compounds over time.