Productivity

It seems I'm always looking for faster, more efficient ways to do
things. Why is that such a hang-up? I'm always looking for the ultimate
to-do list/project-tracker/organizer application or system. Still
haven't found the perfect one. Here's a different, yet similar
situation. I'll observe a staff member doing something tedious and repetitive on the
computer. My brain usually fairly quickly figures out a way to get to
the end result faster. The problem is often this: it involves knowing
how to do lots of tricky (i.e. fun) stuff with data-file manipulation,
data parsing, complex Excel formulas, SQL queries, or a combination of
all of them. Which means usually the only one in the office capable of
doing it is me. So, do I invest 30 minutes of my time for the sake of
efficiency, or just let them pound away for 2+ hours manually. Doing it
myself has gotten me into time trouble in the past, so I have learned to
let go of those things - unless the potential time savings and accuracy
benefits are obviously dramatic, or time is essential.


Is this normal? Is life all about maximizing productivity? Or do we just try to cram too much into our lives?