Overtime, Overdrive
I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about work: how different aspects of the website we manage could be made better: both frontend and back, human and computer processes, the acquisition of tools and the training of skills required to use those tools.
It’s not that there’s an award up for grabs or anything. The problem is simply this: I do not know how to turn it off or put it on sleep mode.
I carry a sketchbook almost everywhere I go, logging down ideas on the commute, at my desk, while shopping. I’ve caught myself crawling out of bed to scribble a thought from a dream, and they usually turn out to be solutions to problems I never could solve while conscious. I wish there were more hours in a day, because there are so many ideas to try out and so little time.
Some people have pointed out that I work too hard - and that it isn’t as if I were still running my own business and that I should relax. But I find myself with no tolerance for mediocrity or lack of trying.
If there is something worth doing, some improvement that can be made, some problem that can be solved; if there is excellence to be attained, there is no reason why we should not expend our energies to do so.
The nagging spiritual question here is, where does God’s desire for us to take care of what we are entrusted with end (Genesis 2:15) and the pride of Babel (Genesis 11:4) begin?
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there is no reason why we should not expend our energies to do so.
Try talking to people who suffer from burnout to get a different perspective : )
Know what you mean. That perfectionist in us wanting to do more, make it better, and give our best all the time.
But listen to your body, too. Slow down, take a break, if you have to. (I'm having one right now ;p For me, even when my boys are asleep, housework beckons. Sort of like your unending work that you take home with you from the office; I was the same when I was working before).
Our good Lord Himself knew to rest, after He had finished the work He had been doing (Gen 2:2) =)
Very interesting question..
It really depends on who we think the work we do belongs to, doesn't it? If we can say at the end of the day: "We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty," (Lk 17:10) then perhaps we have guarded our hearts against the pride of life.
That's a question I am still asking myself.