Efficiency is Outpacing Capacity

I had a pretty productive day yesterday.

I formatted and published a blog, designed a small poster, cleaned up the Ginghamsburg Facebook page, added chapter markers to Ginghamsburg’s worship broadcast on YouTube, designed and scheduled an instagram carousel to promote Ginghamsburg’s next worship series, designed three logo concepts for Tipp City’s 2028 Taste of Tipp Business Expo, designed the cover of Ginghamsburg’s upcoming impact report, and put together an entire art package for Ginghamsburg Student Ministry’s fall retreat, including a presentation template, title slides, promotional posts, a journal cover and two collectible stickers.

And then I looked at the clock.

It was only 10:30am.

I had only been working for 2.5 hours.

What am I supposed to do with the other 5.5 hours of my work day? I mean… I gotta save something for tomorrow, right?

Twenty years ago it might have taken a full 40 hour week to burn through that list.

Yes, some of it is AI. But also, some of it is better machinery. Some of it is the finely tuned communication request system. Some of it is media library subscriptions. Some of it is wisdom and instinct that comes through my experience. Some of it is the nomenclature from that experience that feeds higher-quality AI outputs.

Regardless, in this season, efficiency is out-pacing capacity, and I have all kinds of questions about what that means. I like going to Ecclesiastes when I have big questions, because there is something grounding about hearing “everything is meaningless” straight from the Bible. Haha.

The whole book is appropriately poignant, but here are a few passages that stood out:

1. Ecclesiastes 4:6

“Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.”

The goal isn’t to discover enough additional tasks to refill the eight-hour container. Maybe increased efficiency is allowed to produce margin/tranquility, not merely increased output. At the end of the day, I was struggling to feel accomplished until I made a list of what I actually got done and realized, “Wait a minute, I actually did a lot of good things today.” I was getting bogged by the weight of omission… the need to take on two handfuls yet leaving one hand empty. No… sometimes one handful is enough.

2. Ecclesiastes 7:8-18 hits especially hard

“The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools. Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions.”

Ecclesiastes 7:8-10

Don’t get addicted to the beginning.
Don’t get impatient with the process.
And don’t romanticize the way things used to be, especially when the nature of creative work is changing underneath me.

“Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun. Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have it. Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad (or weird), consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.”

Ecclesiastes 7:11-14

Imagine that. I actually don’t and can’t control the shape of the season that I’m in.

“In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: the righteous perishing in their righteousness, and the wicked living long in their wickedness. Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise— why destroy yourself? Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool— why die before your time? It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.”

Ecclesiastes 7:15-18

That’s the centering thought. I can avoid the pitfall of my creative energy dying before my daily clock runs by fearing God. And by fearing God I can avoid the other pitfall of pushing myself to engineer the illusion of a perfect life.

“Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.”

Don't become lazy.

Don't become a productivity machine either.

That's a pretty interesting narrow road. Pray that I find it.