Today, I’ll be cleaning and organizing my new office.
I really can’t stand cleaning and organizing.
I’m fairly organized, but the process of getting there is horribly boring. I’m not one of these type-A people who get excited about manila folders and binder clips.
There are parts of my job that I love. There are parts that I feel truly matter. It’s easy to look at these as my real job – and everything else, like getting my office neat, as just distractions.
The salesman has a passion for finding new customers but can’t stand filing all the paperwork that his job requires. The Sunday School teacher loves the thrill of hearing kids recite scripture from memory, but dealing with unruly kids is draining and something she’d rather not have to do. The touring musician enjoys playing in front of crowds but hates the grueling boredom of travelling from gig to gig.
But it’s all part of your work.
The less desirable parts are still part of your work. Organizing is part of your work. Processing your inbox is part of your work. Continually educating yourself in your field is part of your work.
And we are to work as unto the Lord even in these seemingly extraneous areas.
Rather than divide the activities up, we can choose to intentionally view them as tied together – as inseparable.
Time
We need to schedule and make time for the parts that seem valuable to us, as well as the parts (like organizing) that seem like necessary nuisances.
Also, areas that we dislike we may tend to procrastinate on. What should take two hours ends up taking four because we drag our feet. When we shift our mindset and begin to take joy in these draining parts, it frees us to have more energy to complete them in a quick and timely manner.
Sharpening the Saw
Part of my work needs to be, as Covey puts it, sharpening the saw. In other words, part of my work is educating and training myself so that I can be better at my work.
Reading and training need to be built into our schedules – not just nice add-ons if time permits.
Glory
Finally, we can bring glory to God in the activities we love and also the ones we can’t stand. I would even say that faithfully being obedient in the areas we dislike can bring God even more glory. I’ll be organizing my office, and despite the fact that I’d rather be doing almost anything else, I’m going to try to work as unto the Lord.
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It’s funny how we assign value to certain things and not to others, when the whole is so important. I have often read that having a neat and orderly work environment is a big enhancement to effectiveness and productivity (not to mention an indication of what’s going on inside our heads!). Also, taking time to sharpen the saw – So often we can view the development time as secondary, less important than all the doing doing doing.
Good post, Loren.
I wonder if people did that 100 years ago. Like “I love milking the cow, but I hate mending the fences.” Maybe they just got to work, heh.
That is great! Double-heh.
You make excellent points! I would agree it can be hard sometimes doing the things that are necessary but not fun. I love the point that we should give God the glory in all situations and times. This is something I could do better in.
Doing everything for his glory is something I think we all could work on.
Great post, Loren! I think we can all identify with this.
One point I would add is that we should assess our jobs on a regular basis (maybe quarterly or semi-annually) to make sure we are maximizing the time we work in an area of our strengths.
While EVERY job has parts we will not necessarily enjoy, there are times we lose focus and allow more of that type of work to consume more and more of our time. We keep doing it because we do not want to be lazy or ineffective. The problem is that we are being ineffective in that very line of thinking.
The more time we can spend in our strengths (which happens to be what we enjoy) and the less time we spend in those boring areas, the more effective we will be and the greater impact we will have.
As you start out as a smaller company, this is not necessarily an option. As you grow, you need to try to offload to someone else some of those tasks where you are less efficient. You may think you cannot afford it, but you are actually improving your efficiency beyond the expense!
For the full effect, I would suggest any of the strengths books by Marcus Buckingham. Starting now to think like he does will help you more than you can imagine!
As for now, get back to organizing your office!
Great points, Chris. I totally agree that we need to evaluate our strengths and, if possible, seek to delegate those tasks which are not in our strengths. Buckingham’s materials are great resources!
Our minds should always be looking where to find God…even in the stuff we don’t like to do…it makes the Job more enjoyable as well…
in other words…you have to clean your office…because it was dirty…in like manner…Jesus had to clean us up…through something not fun…dying on the cross…but after the clean up…is the satisfaction of…it is finished….and Glory begins!
It was funny, because I was listening to some podcasts as I cleaned. There was a sermon that came on talking about how the Spirit makes order out of chaos and how that’s exactly what we do in our jobs. It was timely
Thank you for being organized enough to write this. If only I could spend all of my time reading Scripture, praying and writing to share what I have learned. In my world of organized chaos there are too many distractions that keep my attention away from what is important. You have encouraged me to make a list, check it twice and get busy. God bless you.
Glad to hear this blog is helping you, Susan! That’s very encouraging.
Great points here Loren.
I have found I need to schedule the things I have a hard time doing. One of the things I do is make a check list and balance doing the things I like and don’t like doing.
If you are a leader or manager you should hire or have people on your team who like doing the things you don’t, or are strong in your weak areas. Doing this allows you to focus on the things you are good or strong at. It also brings enjoyment to the people working in those areas they enjoy.
Good points, Dan. Delegation, especially to someone who has corresponding strengths, is a powerful and necessary concept. And I like the idea of purposefully mixing activities you like with those that you don’t.
I have made it a point to mix activities and it has really worked with me. Keep writing great stuff.
Hi, Loren. I found this through TheHighCalling.org. Glad to see it there. I have a project sitting on my office floor this morning (because it’s too big to fit on my desk), and I don’t want to tackle it. I have ten other fun things I’d rather do. I know that once I start I’ll stay on task, but it’s the starting part that’s so hard.
Thanks for the inspiration.
I think you’re in good company. But I think half the battle is recognizing that we have those tendencies. So you’re halfway there!