Thursday, February 15, 2007
Work Heartily!
We praise people who can multi-task, those folk who will be reading this while checking their emails, speaking on the phone, helping the children with the homework, sorting the laundry and making the dinner. It's one of the main tenets of time management to use your time more efficiently. However there is growing evidence that suggests that, rather than being more efficient, multi-tasking makes you less productive and can even reduce your short-term memory!
Sue Shellenbargar has written about this for the Wall Street Journal in Juggling Too Many Tasks Could Make You Stupid and Who's the Better Multitasker? Female Rats Provide Clues, backing up her article with papers from the Journal of Experimental Psychology and NeuroImage, both of which I had heard of through the medical press. I was pleased then when Alex and Brett Harris' Boundless article Christians Can't Multitask arrived in my inbox.
Reading these articles together has reminded me to work at everything with my whole heart, remembering that my work is for the Lord. This means giving some things a proper priority and dedicated time and giving up some less important things that don't deserve such attention. I need to be unafraid to go against our society's rushing 24-hour culture and sometimes pause to admire the view. I need to stop to take time to worship God and to rest in him. Equally as much as I work with my whole heart, I need to rest with my whole heart and not feel guilty for it! I suppose I am needing a decluttering of my time as much as my belongings, so I can more fully enjoy and share those good gifts I have been given.
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Colossians 3:32-24
Sue Shellenbargar has written about this for the Wall Street Journal in Juggling Too Many Tasks Could Make You Stupid and Who's the Better Multitasker? Female Rats Provide Clues, backing up her article with papers from the Journal of Experimental Psychology and NeuroImage, both of which I had heard of through the medical press. I was pleased then when Alex and Brett Harris' Boundless article Christians Can't Multitask arrived in my inbox.
Reading these articles together has reminded me to work at everything with my whole heart, remembering that my work is for the Lord. This means giving some things a proper priority and dedicated time and giving up some less important things that don't deserve such attention. I need to be unafraid to go against our society's rushing 24-hour culture and sometimes pause to admire the view. I need to stop to take time to worship God and to rest in him. Equally as much as I work with my whole heart, I need to rest with my whole heart and not feel guilty for it! I suppose I am needing a decluttering of my time as much as my belongings, so I can more fully enjoy and share those good gifts I have been given.Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Colossians 3:32-24
Labels: time/money management, year of abundance
13 Comments:
lxfOf course, one could equally argue that the command to pray withour ceasing means that Christians necessarily have to multitask...
What a great reminder and challenge for me today! Thanks!!
Momrn2 - Thank you for coming by. I found the articles really helpful.
John - don't you be cheeky! You know what I mean!
Well, the whole article seemed to hang on one verse, Colossians 3:23. That annoyed me a bit.
Keziah, I saw at a post below John asked you how you pronounce your name. I was wondering the same thing. I had a roommate in college whose name was Kezia (without the h) and she pronounced it "KEE-zshuh". How do you pronounce your name? KEH-zee-uh? keh-ZIE-uh?
I don't offer Colossians as a prooftext to ban multi-tasking, rather as a reminder to me that I should be trying to do my best in whatever I am doing and that multi-tasking actually dilutes this.
I find that particularly at work. I can be sorting out patients, teaching students, dealing with phone calls from GPs, and dictating letters all at the same time - and I know it makes it more difficult to get everything done well no matter how efficient I look! At the moment though, I am on call but things are quiet so I am hiding out in my office so I can give this my full attention.
In the same way, I need to try to forget about work when I am not here. There have been plenty of times that I find myself thinking about something I should have done or wondering how a patient is when I should be concentrating my attention on the dinner I'm eating, the friends I'm with or even just the film I am watching.
I want to use my time and energy well, both for work and play, so liked the reminder from these articles.
The name debate - I'm surprised how many emails I've had asking me this! We might need a Hebrew scholar to tell us properly how it should be said, but I say KEZ-ee-ah. Hope that helps!
Oh thank you so much, Keziah, for clearing that up! I will be able to sleep tonight now. ;-)
Oh wow!! I just found you through Leslie's blog! You have the same name as my daughter!! : ) I'm assuming your parents named you after Job's daughter? : ) I didn't get a chance to look at much of your blog, but I'll be back! I have to get my kiddos up from nap! Look forward to getting to know you!!!
As far as I can tell, the Hebrew would be k'tsee-ah.
Ashley - Glad that is sorted! No more sleepless nights for you!
Shawnda - Great to have you here. How do you say your daughter's name? She has a lovely name, if I say so myself! Looking forward to getting to know you too.
John - Thank you for that. We've obviously been saying it wrong for years - how do you manage a "k't" sound?
Your post has reminded me to stay on task! Right now I only have one window open on Internet Explorer - your blog! I usually have at least five and I flit between tasks on the net, which makes my mind feel divided - because it is!
John - thanks for the wee Hebrew lesson but I think I am just going to have to stick with Kez-EE-ah at the moment!
Sherrin - I needed reminding as much as anyone with this so have been trying to make a more concerted effort to concentrate on things. I'm glad you found it helpful particularly when things are so busy for you just now.
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