Why efficiency?

A few months ago, my husband and I were having a conversation and he chuckled and said that I was the only person he knew that viewed life through the lens of efficiency. I love systems and I love making things more efficient. Everything. I’ve been teased for mixing my shampoo and conditioner in my palm so that I only have to lather and rinse once. I have long, curly hair, so by my conjecture, I save at least three minutes not doing this process twice. Three minutes a day is 21 minutes per week. Imagine what can get accomplished with an extra 21 minutes just doing one simple thing!

I believe my husband and I were initially talking about my grocery shopping routine when the efficiency comment came up. He was teasing me about knocking over old ladies as I raced through the store in record time, not even stopping the cart as I sped down aisle after aisle to throw in the items I needed. I laughed because he was right—not about the old ladies—but about always keeping the cart in motion as I shop and toss in what I need. You see, my grocery list is typed up, categorized, and in the order of the layout of the store. I created it based on our family’s eating habits, so there aren’t any extra items on it, and, if there are things that I don’t need on that trip, I simply cross them out. It’s so much faster to have a pre-made list and cross off items, than to have to create a list every time I go to the store. Not only is list-making quick and easy, but my time in the store is efficient—I’m not doubling back for this or that item that was on the bottom of my list but is way back at the entrance of the store. While doubling back and walking all over the store three or four or five times might improve my Fitbit steps, the inefficiency of it drives me bonkers. Furthermore, when I have a list based on a meal plan and I’m intentional about my movement through the store, it is rare that I get distracted to buy unnecessary things. This, in turn, maintains efficiency financially so that I don’t overspend (a budget of $325/month for a family of 5 must be pretty particular!). I go grocery shopping every two weeks and I’m usually able to do the shop in about 20-25 minutes—sometimes even including checkout and bagging them myself, on a good day. That is a beautiful thing.

By now, you might be thinking I’m crazy…and maybe I am…a little. But as I tell my family, while there might be a madness to my method, there’s a method to my madness. Why spend unnecessary time doing the mundane things of life? I’d rather be playing a game, baking, creating something, out on a walk, playing at the park, or a million other things that are more fun than grocery shopping or cleaning my house. You see, all of the fun things are with the people I love. And love is inefficient. It takes loads of time to foster close friendships, to deepen your marriage, to parent your children and instill in them the values you hope for them to have as adults. There is no way to be more efficient with our love—you can’t take shortcuts and create systems to ensure that people know you love them. Sometimes we might spend hours with a person in order to help them with one small task—I’ve taken three hours of my day to take a person to a necessary appointment. Usually on any given day, there’s a million things I could think of to do in a few hours other than drive someone around town and sit and wait in my car while she is in her appointment. But to help and serve another shows love. And love is inefficient. But that’s just the thing—I strive to be efficient in other areas of my life so that more of my time is available to inefficiently “waste” my love on others so that they know that they are loved. It’s a ‘hard knock life’ and I think our world today is too often void of kindness and love. Maybe it’s because we’ve become a stressed-out, uber-busy, instantly-gratified society and love has somehow gotten lost in the efficiency mix. At the end of our lives, we aren’t going to think, “Gee, I wish I had worked more, or spent more time cleaning or acquiring things.” Nope! I think most people, if they have regrets, it has to do with loving others and spending time with those who are most important in our lives. I don’t want to regret time lost with those I love.  If anything, I’ve learned that life is short, and we have to do our best to live it to its fullest and take advantage of every love opportunity possible, regardless of how inefficient it might be.