Work Harder
Not just smarter
We’ve all heard the adage — “Work smarter not harder!” And let’s face it, we’ve all known people who seem busy, but never really accomplish anything. We wonder what in the world they’re doing. We’ve experienced, ourselves, the phenomena of being busy with nothing to show for it. So, working smarter has its place.
Our techno-dependent culture believes in the saving power of technology. Whatever the problem, technology has the answer. How many times have you “googled” something and found the answer? Technology solves many problems, but there’s a cost. Smartphones, computers, & the internet convince us that technology possesses great power (and it does of course), but we fail to see that we’re sacrificing more valuable things.
Consider this, the most important things in life cannot be seen. They are invisible:
- Love
- The bond between friends
- Compassion
- Faith
- Gratitude
- Joy
- Wisdom
The effects of these intangible things are observable, but the “things” themselves are not concrete.
Technology does allow us to accomplish more tasks, but all these tasks are robbing us of the more important things in life.
We spend more time “doing” and less time “being”
Technological development has no plans of slowing down. Which means busyness increases as time goes by. We embrace more technology in hopes of becoming more productive — and while we may become more efficient, we will have less time for the more important things in life. We could be sacrificing efficiency for effectiveness.
Bottom line:
- We have a finite amount of time each day
- Our task list is growing rapidly
- We’re spending more time doing/accomplishing and have less time for the more important things in life
Think of that long-time friend who you lost communication with…why did you lose touch with them? Probably, you both got too busy with tasks, and so the friendship suffers.
Anyone that’s married knows how this happens. Over the years busyness creeps in, and you take each other for granted. Inevitably, you lose connection with the person closest to you! What in the world is going on?
This not how life is supposed to be.
Drifting away from the important things in life never happens overnight, but slowly over time. And the worst part: We now embrace this as the new normal. It’s normal to be hyper-busy — to have more things to do in a day than can be done.
This isn’t a plea to ditch technology…but rather, to embrace it. Not only for how it helps us, but for how it hurts us. If we’re going to continue this technology addiction then let’s be real about it and not pretend there’s no downside.
If we choose this life, then we have to work harder to embrace the important things in life. We have to struggle to make time to love those around us…and not merely in the flow of the day as it fits with our schedule.
Technology allows us to be independent people causing disconnects between others & important things. We need to make time for friends, family, & faith. Technology causes to speed through life to accomplish and do things. We need to make time to be grateful and appreciative for the things and people in our lives.
We’re all guilty of neglecting important things because we’re simply “too busy.”
Here’s a question to consider — The last time you “googled” something and found the answer, what did you do with all that time that technology saved you?
