How do I stop moving so fast?!

I have always known that I move way too fast. I get jittery, I have always had the tendency to rush things, and this has come into my chess playing too. I always finish everything first, but as we all know chess isn't a race. I'm getting really worried about this, as this has been the major problem. I have been going to a club for about 2 months, where I have only had one win from about 8 games. Most of those games I could have won or at least drawn, for I had an equal, and sometimes better, position, which I screwed up with a move I made too fast, and realised my mistake within 10 seconds of hitting the clock.

I played a game just then where, even though I won, I barely won because of some blunders. It was 15|10, and I finished with 21 minutes on the clock. When I use my time, I can beat people rated 1400, 1500 and above, but online I am struggling to keep above 1200. Please, how can I start using my time more!

bump

Well, Dan Heisman has written a number of Novice Nook articles about time management over the years. You might want to give some of those a read.

https://web.archive.org/web/20131005134958/http://home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Articles/subject.htm

If you really gave it some thought you'd realize why.   It's because  you are lazy.  Impatient and lazy.  

If you examine other aspects of your life I'm guessing you'd find clear proof of it.  It's one of the consequences of how the digital age is turning everyone into instant gratification junkies.

Moving too fast was around long before the digital age.

Your problem is probably with 8 arms, it is difficult to keep them all under control. 

I had the same problem when i started out, i found that sitting on my hands, as simple as it sounds really helps. Because everytime you are about to make a impulsive move or decision, you are reminded that you should think twice and deeper before lifting off to use your hands. 

It also discourages your opponent from touching your pieces. 

Sitting on hands is always a cute answer.

But, of course, the best answer is that you need to develop a thought process. Once you have done this, the problem will disappear.

Start with these easy starter ideas:

With the last opponent move -

     - Is he threatening anything?

     - Can I threaten him with something?

After you have chosen a move and before you actually make it -

     - Am I creating a weakness or leaving a piece hanging?

     - What is the best response he can make? (this one is tricky because it requires you to be really-really-really honest, not hopeful)

This, of course is a short list, but it is broad enough that it should help you slow down and make better moves.

Try to be more virtuous, because

Slow down, you move to fast.

You got to make the moment last.

Just ... kicking down the rooks and pawns,

Takin' your time and feelin' groovy.

la-la,  la-la,  la,  la--la--la, feelin' groovy!

Writing down your movements on a piece of paper helps.

Forget all bs about your personality here. You got to learn more about chess and you will experience when and how long to think. It's something we all have to go through. First step is collecting your mistakes. 2nd step is grouping them. 3rd is training the most often done or the most annoying one. Aagaard did write this process can continue from club player till gm.

find a willing training partner equal or slightly better than yourself.  play without a clock.  analyze each move-make sure you know why your opponent made the move.  don't forget the vacated square-is an opposing piece now able to use a line coming thru that line or use the square.  do all the move analysis for your candidate moves.  try to determine if there is something strategic going on-difficult for those of us in the 14-15 hundreds.

Indeed, patience is a virtue.  As the old prayer goes-"God, please give me patience.  Hurry up.  I need it now."

When I was very young I was too hyper and moved too fast. A wise old man at the chess club told me to sit on my hands everytime I had the urge to move too quickly.

I used to do this a lot... Playing online I think it definitely helped to simply open the analysis board every time you make a move. That way you can play the intended move and then force yourself to go through the possible responses, taking away that immediate impulse to make the move as soon as you've spotted it. If you can get into that habit, it should spill over into your OTB and live chess play as well and you'll find that you spot more mistakes before you move rather than after :)

Also, try not to mix bullet or blitz games with longer time controls... I find that it stuffs up your thought process when you have to switch from one to the other quickly.