Be less efficient, get more done

efficient ([e^]f*f[i^]sh”ent), adjective – Causing effects; producing results.

Have you ever noticed that the more you do the less you accomplish? Let’s think about this together.

In the society that we live in today, we are trained to always be doing something or, more likely, many things at once. Phones get smarter, Homes are multipurpose, and Cars can double as homes with all their many super efficient gadgets. Yet, the more we cram into the things around us the less we feel we have room to let loose and relax.

Such a lifestyle is lived in order to produce the most results in a least amount of time. All of these modern day luxuries are often beneficial, but as the Bible teaches, we should be moderate in our habits. Thus, if we stop trying to produce as many results as possible, then what we are able to do will be more meaningful.

The symbiotic relationships that many creatures exhibit in nature teach us that it is better to do more with less. Take for instance the flower and the bee. This is a universal example that most everyone knows of. The flower needs to pollinate other flowers so they can reproduce and the bee needs nectar to produce honey as food to survive. The bee does not make its own nectar, but takes advantage of the existing supply found in local flower pollen. Likewise, the flower is benefited by the traveling bees. As humans, we can learn a lesson from this simple example. We do not need to be able to do everything ourselves. If we are more focused on one thing we can make that product better and more meaningful.

There is a direct ratio of how much we do to its quality. When you sweeten a cup of tea with a teaspoon of sugar it becomes more enjoyable. However, you can overpower the tea and make it disgustingly sweet just as you can make the tea unnecessarily bitter if you put none in at all.

Likewise, you can do too much(or too little) at once and cause the quality of what you are doing to be crap. Think of a driver eating a hamburger, drinking a soda, and talking on the cell phone almost all at once. The driving ability of that driver would put them in the ranks of one who is heavily intoxicated. Have sharp focus on one thing at a time and its quality will increase noticeably.

All that said, take time to do less. Minimize your load and  increase the quality of the time you spend.

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