UMC20240414 - Moving Slowly¶
I find it interesting that in the work place, our value as an employee is more so a perceived value rather than a measured record of outcomes. Visual indicators of "busyness" contribute more to our perceived value than actual accomplishments. Do you leave the office late? Do you send emails on the weekend? Do you regularly decline meetings because you have too much to do? Then you must be doing a lot of good for the company. Do you read a book at lunch? Do you leave work on time? Then you could be doing more for the company.
I am reading a new book released by Cal Newport called Slow Productivity. He says that the response to the reality outlined above is something called "pseudo-productivity". A belief that if we are knocking off tasks on our TODO lists, if we are busy and working hard on "something", then we are contributing to the company. He argues that a lot of the work we actually end up doing in this frantic, hurried approach is "busy work" and does not have any measured impact in the world. How often do we get to the end of a day/week/month and not feel like we have anything to show for it?
The three main ideas in the book are to do fewer things, work at a natural pace and obsess over quality. Newport argues that in order to have real impact in the world we must rather consider the long game. Be ruthlessly selective about what we spend our time on and do those few things excellently. Separating the wheat in our days from the chaff as it were. And over time, we see our impact grow.
These ideas translate so well into the church and our spiritual lives as well. Are we just going through the motions, filling our schedules with activities to appear busy, or are we channeling our efforts towards activities that foster genuine spiritual growth and connection? Just as in the workplace and personal lives, the call to do fewer things but to do them well resonates deeply within the spiritual realm.
Love, Cliff