A recent conversation with my neighbour with whom I have an adjoining garden made me realise we have very different views on what efficiency in the garden means. I’d suggest we’re at different parts of the spectrum.
To me efficiency in the garden is ensuring I give the flowers optimum and natural conditions for flowering – sun, water, space etc. I’d also suggest it’s about me also being able to use the space for relaxation etc. So I place my attention on activities that support this happening. Therefore you may well find weeds in my garden and moss in my lawn but unless I have the time, and unless they’re getting in the way of me achieving my desired outcome, I wont do anything more about them.
My downstairs neighbour has a different strategy. It feels to me like their attention is not on the desired outcome but instead they’re concentrating more on a to do list e.g "Can we cut back this paeony because it’s stopping me cutting the grass" – when it’s just about to flower. My outcome of beautiful flowers in the garden is greater than my desire to have the grass a few inches shorter in that part of the garden for the next couple of weeks. My neighbour would disagree.
It did get me thinking though about efficiency at work. I, like many people, have a to do list. Yet how many of those things would be on that to do list if I applied the same logic to my work as I do my garden? and in the past how much stress have I given myself by rigidly keeping to my to do list when it no longer serves the outcome I want?
Which all reminds me about a card I have which says "The difference between a flower and a weed is a judgement" – for me efficiency is about determining just what and how many of those weeds need taking out rather than removing every last one? What about you?
