My Sunday morning routine includes going to church…but not before I set the two robot vacuums to go. One upstairs and the other downstairs. They do their thing and are clever enough not to fall off the steps.

Last Sunday, I noticed that I hesitated with setting Robot#2 off. I bought Robot#2 after I was so happy with our first purchase. Robot#2 cost about the same, and had listed even better functionality. When we first got it going, I realised that it was noisier than Robot#1. It also kept getting stuck under the couches, the height was not quite right. So I put it upstairs further away from the family activities and with little chance it would get stuck under couches.

Upstairs, I noticed that Robot#2 sucked up less dirt than Robot #1. The tank was never quite as full. Soon we were picking up the fluff and placing it directly in its path to encourage suction! Then I started to decrease the amount of floor space it needed to work on by closing the room doors.

Last Sunday, I thought perhaps I would just vacuum the upstairs myself.

I had lost trust in the capacity of Robot#2 to do the job at all.

What is my point here? When we do not perform at capacity, efficiency and reduce our productivity, we lose our ability to serve. The people around us lose trust and a sense that you are up to it.

Yes it is the “busy” season (yuck, dislike that word). Yes we are all pushing through. Remember – maintaining capacity, efficiency and productivity requires recharging, reflecting and refocussing. Sometimes the best thing we can do is to pull back, pace slow, and power down.