Small and Simple Things

I just spent 15 minutes working in the Vineyard. Have you heard of it yet? Brooke introduced me to it Friday. The Vineyard is a new online service campaign of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After you sign in and choose the tasks you would like to help with, you can spend as much or as little time as you would like performing that task, which helps the Church prepare digital media for production.

For example, in my 15 minutes this afternoon, I tagged photos that had been submitted by members of the Church (submitting photos is another way you can work in the Vineyard). If you're interested in the Church's online media, you should definitely check it out.

There is a quote from a scripture on their homepage that I was thinking about yesterday at the Temple. "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass" (Alma 37:6).

There is no one that has enough time to do all of the work in the temple that needs to be done. But we can all do our part, even if that is only a few hours a month. Little by little, an hour from one member here, one from another member there, this great work is rolling forward.

That is the same principle at work in the Vineyard. There are so many photographs that need to be tagged; so many documents that need to be verified; so many ways that anyone can help. In my 15 minutes I only tagged 15 pictures. But if you add that to the pictures that 15 other people tagged in their 15 minutes, the impact of the service we are giving is being multiplied.

What's more, I think this principle might be able to help me conquer my tendency to procrastinate. Most of the time I feel like I don't have enough time to do anything of real consequence unless I have at least a good, solid hour. But, in actuality, dozen productive 10-minute chunks is greater than 90 minutes of dedicated time to work on a project.

I was hoping to wrap these thoughts together with something witty and profound, but I think I'll just keep it simple and stop here.