Being Efficient.

I have been finding myself to be extremely busy. Busy to do any of my regular chores. My to-do list has become more than a couple of pages. I felt that I need to get more efficient in doing my day to day activities. At work whenever I find one of my engineers having trouble finishing assignments, it is invariably due to the following:
1. Priorities are wrong.
2. Not knowing when and whom to ask for help.
3. Indecisiveness or inability to take risk.

Priorities
In order for us to come up with a prioritized list often times we have to come up with a vision/mission statement. Put in normal terms we need to set an objective for our life. As Christians our objective in life should be to glorify God. Bible says in Colossians 3:17, 'Let every detail in your lives--words, actions, whatever--be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

So I was trying to see how I can build priorities in my life using this objective. I looked in the Bible for answers. I was surprised to find that Jesus has given a priority for our life. It is in Matthew 22:36Mt 22:36 “[Jesus], which is the great commandment in the law?” And he said to him, ’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”I looked at it and felt that it is too abstract. How am I going to use this to prioritize my day to day work? So it lays out as follows:

1. Relationship with God
This meant that I should prioritize my quite time with God ahead of all the other activities I do. This includes carrying out the responsibilities God entrusted me with. This includes playing the role of the leader of the family that God has blessed me with.

2. Relationship with your fellow people and yourself. This means I should be able to balance activities like spending time to take care of myself with spending time with others.A classic illustration of this prioritization in action can be found in the story of Martha and Mary. Jesus and his disciples came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!' 'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'Martha got so busy that she forgot the big picture! She was so worried about doing things that could have been put off that she missed out on listening to Jesus and spending intimate time with him. Don't let this happen to you!Martha prioritized providing for all the guests ahead of listening to Jesus.Knowing when and whom to ask for help.Often times we forget that we follow an all powerful God. A God who created the heaven and earth, a God without whose permission a hair on your head will not fall down. Now imagine if you were working for boss who is like this. What would you do when you hit a roadblock in your tasks? I am sure we would all like to talk to our boss about this problem and probably ask him if he knows anybody else in the organization is fighting similar problems. Or whether he could throw his weight around and get something done. In our lives many times we feel that we have to do it all alone and we struggle night and day trying to solve the problems on our own. Just escalate and be still. God says "Be still and know that I am God".IndecisivenessI used to have a boss who had the philosophy that if I make wrong decision I learn but if I don't make a decision I fail. At times when we are faced with a tough decision we want to push the decision making as far out as possible. We want to wait till all the variables get resolved. What we need is to make that leap of faith. Bible is filled with stories of people who took that leap of faith. David was anointed King but it took him 40 years before he became one. In the mean time he was hunted down but he never gave up. Abraham waited for his son and he was blessed with one at the age of 100 years. Bible also illustrates the pain they went through and the struggles they had in their mind. There were times of disbelief that they had to overcome. Taking firm decisions and laying it to God helps us save time and become more efficient.