The book that helped me the most
with the use of time was 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. He made a distinction between the
urgent and the important, the urgent and the important. If something is urgent
and important, it justly demands our attention. However, we need to make time
for the things that are not urgent, but they are important. He would use an
example like reading a good book. Not urgent, but you have identified it as
important. He also stressed that most of us find it easy to let the trivial and
unimportant consume our use of time.
I thought of such helpful
distinctions as I came across a reference to some new images that might help us
reflect upon our use of time.
Shadow work.
Pumping our own gas. Assembling our
own furniture. Booking our own travel.
In years past, other people used to
do this work for pay. But now we do it ourselves, for free.
Craig Lambert has written a book
called Shadow Work: The Unpaid, UnseenJobs That Fill Your Day. Clearly, these efforts take time. Lots of time.
He explains shadow work as new
duties at our offices, which are constantly being downsized. At home, we go to
the Internet for guidance on our medical problems. Of course, this can be
dangerous. Self-diagnosis can be a dangerous thing, simply because we do not
see ourselves very clearly. A doctor, when it comes accurate diagnosis, is
usually far better. Of course, even that can be difficult. We spend countless
hours coordinating our kids' extracurricular activities. Over the past two
decades, as technology has taken off, new tasks have been crammed into our already
full to-do lists.
Generally, I think this “do it
yourself” approach empowers us. Personally, I avoid such projects if they
involve anything approaching mechanical stuff around the house. Suzanne, if so
inclined, will likely get it right. I have a couple of step-sons who would
likely get it right. It would likely be a waste of time for me. Yet, we do much
for free ourselves that we used to pay others to do. He thinks, however, that
this expansion of our “to do” list is to our detriment. In addition, we are
doing what someone used to receive pay to do. Nevertheless, Lambert urges us to
look at the consequences of all this "shadow work" or self-service.
"Shadow work makes us not just busier, but exhausted and isolated,"
writes Ann Hulbert in a review of Lambert's book. We are interacting more with
our screens than with other humans, and we are doing it at unreasonable hours.
"You don't have
to share his mounting alarm, or his nostalgia for gas-pump jockeys, to avail
yourself of his very useful lens. Before you can hope to rebalance your time,
you'd better first understand how you actually spend it."
Well, I think he forgets how much
time people used to spend on such tasks as banking. You had to be present at a
particular time, stand in line, and have a clerk look at your bank registry.
Going to the ATM is shadow work, but when compared to the past, saves us much
time that we can now invest in other ways. One problem with his insight is that
what he calls shadow work most of us would call modern convenience.
Yet, his reflections ought to raise
the question of how we are actually spending our time.
A lot of it is devoted to shadow
work.
It reminds
me of the emphasis when I was young about leisure time and labor-saving
devices. The problem would be adjusting to the increased time off. Are you
having trouble adjusting to your increased time off? Most Americans are not.
The pressure is on the immediate. We focus upon what can satisfy us now. Time
becomes our enemy. We fight against it. We need to befriend time. We can do
that by understanding that happiness, joy, and meaning in life are a long-term
project. Frankly, we need to think more about the end of life than most of us
do. What do you want family and friends to say about at the end? Begin living
that way today.
Elizabeth Grace Saunders has
written an article in the Harvard Business Review with the title: "Are you
proud of how you're spending your time?" She urges us to stop doing what
seems to be most urgent, and "start intentionally investing in what's most
important."
There is a difference between what
is most urgent and what is most important. Relationships are important. People
do relate on social media and email. Yet, answering that email, for example, is
really not as important as attending your child's soccer game. Saunders wants
us to pay attention to what we are doing with our time, do not let others steal
our time, prioritize family and friends, take vacations, develop physically
healthy habits in eating and exercise, refuse to waste time to save money, and
know yourself.
"In my experience it's so easy to
lose track of who you are, what you enjoy, where you are in life and where
you're going, unless you purposely and intentionally take time to
reflect."
Now, just to add a thought at the
end of this little reflection, the danger is that all this focus on doing it
yourself, as empowering as it can be, can lead to a spiritual problem. You see,
if we do not balance doing it ourselves with the work of community, we will
miss one of the most meaningful and purposeful aspects of our lives.
However, to
make this move, we will need to recognize our need for others instead of
insisting that we can do it ourselves.
The theological perspective is that
this busyness of the business of modern life draws us into the world of Martha
and away from sitting at the feet of Jesus. We are being called to distraction,
and the quiet, still voice of God goes unnoticed -- unnoticed in the flood of
ever new links to follow, unnoticed in the hectic pace of modern life, unnoticed
in the flood of events, information and distractions.[1]
[1] --Ernesto Tinajero, "Is Google making us
ignore God?" Sojourners "God's Politics" blog, June 7, 2010.
sojo.net/articles/google-making-us-ignore-god. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
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