Too efficient

Sometimes, I take efficiency too far

I have an enviable little device in my kitchen that’s connected to our built-in vacuum. Whenever I sweep the floor, instead of using a dustpan, I just kick a little lever, and WHOOSH--away goes my pile of dirt through a labyrinth of pipes and into a canister in the garage. If I mistakenly suck up something I shouldn't have, I can rifle through the nastiness and retrieve it if I really have to. Efficient. 

My Gmail account is similar. To clean up my mailbox, I just click click click, push a button, and POOF--all those pesky emails are gone. And if, by chance, I accidentally delete an email I should have kept, Gmail gives me a second chance. I can look through the virtual Trash and find it. Then, if I’m absolutely sure I don’t want to keep it, I can simply click the “Delete forever” button. Very efficient.

My Blogger account also has a quick way of getting rid of stuff. To delete, I just check the box, hit Delete, and my extraneous posts are GONE. Unfortunately, much to my chagrin, once something is gone, it’s gone FOREVER. No rifling through trash cans—virtual or not. No second chances. Too efficient.

Don’t get me wrong: I love efficiency. I’m all about finding ways to make life easier. For example, I use face moisturizer with sunscreen in it just to save a step. I keep cleaning supplies in every bathroom just to save time, and I store each bedding set in one of its pillowcases just to save me from having to hunt. I store leftovers in see-through containers, and I keep a cosmetic bag full of travel-size toiletries ready to go at all times. There’s probably a fine line between efficient and lazy people since both groups try to maximize output with minimum effort. However, in spite of all my efforts to be efficient, I am now the very sad victim of efficiency gone too far.

A couple days ago I unintentionally deleted almost half of my blog posts and couldn’t retrieve them. I felt sick—sick of too much efficiency. With just one wrong keystroke, all that writing disappeared into cyberspace. Ironically, one of the reasons I’ve always loved writing is that my work has had some permanence. Unlike fixing a meal or cleaning the house or raking the leaves—all of which must be repeated ad nauseum—writing has sticking power . . . or so I thought. But no, not this time. Not in Blogger.

After some research and some painful trial and error, I was at least able to find links to my lost posts, preserving the most recent edits and original posting dates. It’s a very unsatisfactory and visually unappealing solution. The worst part is it took me hours and hours just to figure out how to do it, and that is not efficient at all. Lesson learned!