There are things Sacrificed for the sake of Efficiency that I am simply not willing to Sacrifice. For example, most Efficient Bloggers Read Fast, Type Fast and Comment Fast. The problem is that many of them read a whole bunch of Posts as fast as they can, while giving minimal thought to each Post they are reading and occasionally Comment as quickly as they can, while giving minimal thought to what they are saying. Some "Efficient" Bloggers are obsessed to the point at which they are spending too much time on the computer and don't have enough of a life spent apart from it.
In order for me to keep up with this level of Efficiency, I have to make all the same sacrifices and me even more so, because I am a slow reader. Aside from my reading speed, the other main difference between me and highly Efficient Bloggers is that they think that the price they pay for Efficiency is worth it, but I do not. That which is Sacrificed just plain isn't worth it to me, so instead, I just keep plodding along, at my own slow little pace, and hope that a few loyal followers will still come by.
It's like the story in the Bible about Mary and Martha.
"38) As Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him. 39) She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40) But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to Him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!' 41) 'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, 42) but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.'" Luke 10:38-42 (NIV)
I've used this story often in order to remind myself that when I have company, it is more important to spend a little undistracted time with them, than to plan an extremely complicated meal that keeps me in the kitchen. Even the house work, if left to the last minute, like I so often do, causes me to feel tired when the company arrives. It is so easy to forget our priorities.
The other thing that this passage is about, though, is about spending time at Jesus' feet, in both Bible Reading and Prayer. This is more important than all of our busy, Efficiency Goals and even than our Ministry.
Another important lesson relates to a few words that I put in Bold Print in the above passage. When we are interacting with people, we need to listen and not just talk and we need to try to do so very intently, without distraction. When we pray, this is true as well. We need to listen to God and not just make our requests. This involves the Reading of Scripture and also moments a quite reflection, in which we stop complaining and requesting and just listen to that still small voice inside of us; the Holy Spirit; God's Voice.
So how does this relate to Blogging? Well, first of all, time spent in Bible Study and Prayer is more important than our Blogging. There are other non-Blogging priorities that we need to tend to as well. We also need to seek God's direction in our Blogging and not just do it from our own strength or even from our own passion. This is why we need to Listen Intently to God, Without Distraction and than after this is accomplished, then we can Blog.
It's very interesting how so often when I try to write about politics, I get writers block and I'm not able to return again to the blogging until a give in to writing something Spiritual. Isn't that the strangest thing? It's as if God Himself causes the writers block, in order to get me back on track again.
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Blogging efficiency, I am reminded of the somewhat similar issue of workplace efficiency. Take my line of work, mainly working in a kitchen. I've had bosses who want you to pump it out as fast as you can, they'll even have you subtract ingredients from a recipe. For them speed is everything but imo the food suffers, I'd rather put my heart and soul into something, take pride. Same thing with blogging, I'll often write a rough draft of a blog the night before. Of course many times I just blog away at the library but even here I fall back on some notes I've taken, little insights and expressions and I always think about how I'm going to blog about something on one of my almost daily long walks I take. Lastly, maybe this is not the most important thing but it bugs me when I leave a comment with a spelling error or two and can't edit it out like I can my blog, it ain't the end of the world but I now take more time before I even submit a comment.
Amen to the "put one's heart and soul into something" idea. It's just like I know some Contractors that are so into Efficiency and Saving Money that they build their houses dangerously cheap. My husband is an Electrician and he used to work for such a Contractor. They argued all the time because you just don't cut corners when it comes to electricity.
It's interesting that you mentioned the food business. There are all kinds of things that are done to animals and crops in order to increase the Efficiency of the product. In cases like this, it's not just Time Efficiency that matters, but Cost Efficiency as well, in comparison to the Quantity of product that can be produced. Often the food suffers so much that it's not even that healthy anymore.
The reason why I keep coming back to the Blogging, though, is because in order to increase the Hits on ones Blog, it is necessary to Post often and also visit other Blogs often, yet in order to produce this Quantity of Posts and Visits to other Blogs, one must be either Efficient or Obsessed.
What I was pointing out is that there is a cost to this that may not be worth it and anyway, in some of my previous Posts on the subject of Blogging, I have pointed out how an increase in the number of hits may not necessarily equal an increase in the effectiveness of ones Blog in making any real meaningful change in anyone's life.
I'm careful about spelling too, yet it's amazing how often I can still end up with one even after reading through my comment several times before submitting it.
Your last paragraph, I do the same thing and I chalk it up to being tired, happens often when I blog after a long day at work. Re cost efficiency I make the same case about fluorescent lighting which I complain about here from time to time. Sure it's more cost efficient than other forms of lighting but it's way way too bright and I believe makes people spacy and even more tired than they already are. Other people don't know what I'm talking about but I hate the stuff.
Guilty...I am and always have been a Martha. I have to remind myself every day to slow down and smell the roses.
Z-man,
Your fluorescent lighting idea is a good example of the Cost Efficiency verses Time/Work Efficiency issue. Sometimes what businesses do in order to save money effects the Work Efficiency and therefore may have been worth the extra money and yet that's not always how they see it.
We appear to have three factors at work here. Time/Work Efficiency (in relation to Quantity), Cost Efficiency and the one that is so often neglected; Work Efficiency in relation to Quality.
When I think about blogging, one of the ideas that keeps coming back into my mind is the one that I shared on the post entitled "Why Do We Blog?" in relation to the goal of getting "as many Hits as Possible". I compared the idea to the goal of increasing the numbers in attendance at a Church. If you'd like to go back and read it again, it's worth the review.
Hi Kris,
Aside from smelling roses, we need to take the time as well to reflect on what we're read, said and learned throughout the day and of course take time for God.
Uh yes, getting as many hits as possible. The traffic at my blog really increased during a certain timeframe and that was when the Hannitized discovered I did a blog way back when about the Hannity forums so maybe on some really good days I was getting maybe close to a hundred hits but then I read the commenters. Towards the end it all devolved into some type of Larry Flynt Forum and I deleted the whole thing. Now I'm back down to my more modest numbers but with a more quality readership so your points are well taken. Now to have quality and quantity together, that would be a blogger's dream come true!
I do not think that quality and quantity are possible to have together. The reason why is because in order to have quantity, you have to draw all the non-quality readers and commenters. By non-quality, I mean those who read and some that comment, but don't think and those who are more into venting, than into true dialogue.
There is a scripture in the Bible that says...
"13) Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. 14) But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it."
Basically, there are more people out there who do not like to really think than there are people who do. There are also more people out there who are stuck in their own way of thinking, than there are people who are teachable. The masses are full of non-thinkers who just continue to believe what they believe and can not be swayed. Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when he said...
"6) Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you."
I'm convinced that when the hit numbers get too high, we begin to draw the swine. There are fewer quality hits, than there are non-quality hits, so why make the "Sacrifice of Efficiency" in order to draw the swine, while offering your quality readers less quality to read? Once you've stopped and thought this through, you will see that what I'm saying does make sense.
There is a story in the Old Testament of the Bible in which a man named Gideon was instructed by God to weed out all the non-quality men within his army. First, he told anyone who was afraid and didn't really want to be there to go home. Next, he went through a whole series of tests, each of which disqualified a few more men.
I don't remember all the tests off the top of my head, only that one was to watch the men as they drank from a stream and those who scooped up the water with their hands while watching for enemies were kept, but all those who kneeled down and drank directly from the stream were disqualified.
Now, you would think that in something like an army, numbers would be important, yet in this case, God instructed Gideon to value quality instead.
Well that makes me feel a little better. Unfortunately I think your points are all too true. You can publish a book which few will read or scrawl some drivel on the restroom stall and hundreds will see it. However in order to have real influence out there and you and I seem to share this as one of the main goals of our blogging you really need to get more people to view your blog. There is no easy answer.
Well, having a significant impact on my world is something I hope for one day, but I have no idea whether or not it will ever happen. I'd be happy just to have a significant impact on one person who has what it takes to make an impact on the world as a whole.
People keep telling me that I may have already had an impact on my world to a greater extent than I realize, but there is no way to know that for sure.
Being a slow reader and at the moment being quite distracted by a new puppy, I'm quite limited in what I can do in my blogging right now. That's just the way it is right now. Hopefully one day it will get better.
hey guys, remember one thing. you have a significant impact on those who visit, especially those who are regulars. if you didn't they wouldn't be regulars.
we can't change the world but we can have an influence on those within our personal world. and blogs are a way to expand that personal world.
and lista, to have an impact on people but not know it is a far greater gift than to know it. God will know it and reward from that.
Hi Griper,
I'm glad to see that you're back. Did you have a nice trip? I wrote a longer response to this, but went off on enough of a tangent that I decided that I might make another post out of it.
haven't left yet lista. things came up to prevent my going this month.
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