But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you.
– Exodus 18:21-22 (NIV)
Moses’ father-in-law had observed:
Because you are doing too much, you are wearing yourself out, AND everyone else as well. We often think that our hurried and overtaxed life only affects us, but in reality, it affects everyone in our sphere of influence.
Technology was supposed to make our lives more efficient and give us back some of the time that our jobs and other demands on our schedule had created. However, the opposite has proven to be true. Because of the ease of access, we are now unable to turn off. Everyone has instant access to us, and we are on call, all day every day. Add to that the ease of social media and we quickly realize we waste a lot of productive hours doing unproductive things—just mindlessly scrolling.
I would recommend taking an hour or two one day and write down all the things you do in a day. You will most likely find that you are busy, but probably not productive. Or, at least not as productive as you could be. I would be willing to bet, like Moses you could dump some things you are involved in and create space for more important things like family, friends, and fun. Or things like learning, creating, and resting.
Michael Hyatt says that we should “automate, eliminate, or delegate” everything that we can so that we can focus on the stuff, and only the stuff that we excel at. Truth is, none of us will be able to do this perfectly, meaning we will always have to do things we don’t want to do or things we are not good at. But, if we ruthlessly practiced automating, eliminating, and delegating, our lives would be much better.
I dare say that you often feel overwhelmed. You often complain that there is too much to do and too little time to do it. Let me serve as your Jethro and say, you are wearing yourself out. Stop and reorganize your priorities. What we fail to realize is that less is more.