You always have something to do!!!

Where I used to work a fellow employee once said “I can get 40 hours of work done in 30 hours.”  Their statement was to justify why they didn’t work their full 40 required hours.  The idea is that some people are so efficient that they can get all of their work done in 40 hours.  The truth is that some people are more efficient than others, but that doesn’t mean they should cut out early.  Their efficiency creates a great opportunity for them to spend more time planning and thinking strategically.

What if instead of leaving work early, they spent the extra time thinking about ways to improve their job, assist other employees or change inefficient processes.  I have been operating on the other side of the spectrum lately in not having enough time to get everything done, but recently made some changes that have increased efficiency.  I decluttered and it has allowed me to stay ahead and not work from behind.  This meant that I had a couple of hours last Friday to sit and think about what could improve in the finance office and the church.  I could have easily left earlier, but in that extra time I identified some possible improvements that can help our finance office better support the church in reaching the lost. 

So when you get all caught up and have a few extra hours, use the time to think, plan, read, research and improve.  I want to qualify this by saying sometimes the best thing to do is to go home, especially if you had been working difficult hours.  However, there will be days that you will have the opportunity to spend some time improving what you do.  The reality is that you always have something to do.