Low Gear vs. High Gear

Do you tend to be a low-gear person or a high-gear person?

A low-gear person likes to do lots of little jobs and a high-gear person likes to do a few big jobs to accomplish the same amount of work.

I tend to be a low-gear person when it comes to weeding and taking out the compost, and a high-gear person when it comes to dishes and laundry. This can change depending on where I’m living — when I’m in Hawai’i, I throw the compost out in the garden as soon as it’s created, because the place for compost is right outside my kitchen door. When I’m in Oregon, the place for compost is a few-minute walk from my kitchen, so I tend to store up massive amounts before I take a trip. In Hawai’i, I’m low-gear; in Oregon, I’m high-gear.

Overall, I tend towards doing fewer big jobs instead of many little ones. When it comes to something like laundry, where I have to drive to the laundromat, it makes sense to me that driving once and doing six loads of laundry is more efficient than driving six times and doing one load each time.

Sometimes being predisposed for operating at a high gear causes me to lug a little, or even stall. If I let a job get bigger and bigger before tackling it, it can get harder to do the job. Sometimes the job is more challenging emotionally — it seems overwhelming, so I’m resistant to starting it. Sometimes when the job gets bigger, it’s more difficult to find a big block of time in which to finish it. Other times, the size of the job makes it go slower — for example, it takes more time to wash dishes when the sink is full of them than when the sink is only half-full.

If I find I’ve stalled on a job because of its size, then I switch into low gear again. I pick away at it little by little so I never feel too overwhelmed by thinking I have to do it all at once. Often when I start in low gear, I’ll find myself switching into a higher gear naturally as I get into the groove of the work.

If the shadow side of the high gear is lugging, then the shadow side of the low gear is revving. I rarely experience this, yet I have had times when I’m running around frantically, trying to have everything done as soon as possible rather than going slower and letting the work build up a little. I know people who can’t relax when their house isn’t clean, even though they have a child — I imagine they are susceptible to revving, running around putting every dropped toy away as soon as it is discarded.

I believe each kind of job and each person must have their perfect gear. Some jobs are best done in low gear, because when they’re done frequently they stay small and easy to do, whereas others are best done in high gear, because it’s more efficient to let the work pile up for a bit before tackling the job.

People will have different values about what gear in which they choose to operate. I prefer going to the laundromat once and doing six loads of laundry; someone else may have very good reasons for going to the laundromat six times and doing one load each time — maybe they don’t have a car, or they miss their favorite shirt. People may also be capable of different gears — someone who can only lift 25 lbs. at a time will move a woodpile at a lower gear than someone who can lift 50 lbs. at a time.

Noticing that how car gears work can be applied to other areas of my life has helped me understand that I have a choice when it comes to the work I do — sometimes it’s better to break it up, and do lots of little jobs, and sometimes it’s better to lump it together and do one big job. I can fine-tune my choices based on efficiency and notice when I’m lugging or stalling. I can appreciate that the right gear for me could be different than the right gear for someone else.