Effectiveness Techniques: Strength or Weakness?

I was recently approached by a friend to consider my weaknesses, and my first gut reaction in my mind was "I have no weaknesses." Recognizing that that was a proud, not-so-humble thought, I've spent the past couple weeks thinking over areas where I could generally improve myself. And yes, there are indeed some areas I can improve, including...

• I still tend to consider myself a generally socially awkward individual, especially when meeting new people.
• When I'm the focal point of attention in conversation, I have the tendency to try to not leave dead air, which sometimes leads me down a path of saying something I probably shouldn't have said.
• I have the attention span of a squirrel.

This list is something I am constantly working to improve upon. But there was one thing I mentally noted down that I still cannot decide is a strength or a weakness. Because of this indecision, I purposefully have not acted toward "fixing" it.

Namely, I practice the "effectiveness technique" of not putting much time or energy into things I feel are ineffective in the long run. Or, put more bluntly, I don't like doing things I think are a waste of everybody's time, especially my own.

A non-work related example of this would be micro-managing my finances. My parents are very frugal people, so toward the beginning of my adult life, they constantly harped on me that I should be more mindful of how I spend my money. I knew that so long as I stayed well below the threshold of what I make versus what I spend, micro-managing those finances would be an absolute waste of my time. This particular thought process held up well and was a good decision, at least in my mind.

But things admittedly get sticky in a work environment. We are all asked to do certain things or learn certain tools that we may perceive as a poor use of time. While I can still justly say that I have always been a productive team member in all my former jobs, I will admit that there were times in the past that I purposefully dragged my feet on some things I perceived as a waste of time.

Am I wrong?

The practice of business ethics using the seven virtues dictated by St. Thomas of Aquinas was big for me in college, so let's look at the case for both sides amongst the virtue of justice.

First, let's toss out a very quick definition of justice. I perceive justice as maintaining the balance of credits and debits between two parties, whether that be money, actions, or something else. For example, if a bank loans me $1000 with a 10% interest rate for one year, the just thing to do to pay that bank back $1100 at the end of the year.

Let's expound this to a work environment. On one hand, one could make a sound argument that we are obligated to perform any reasonable action requested by the organization (debt) because they compensate us appropriately (credit). Okay, fair enough. That means if I'm asked to learn a tool or process, I should do it because they pay me, right?

Well, let's look at it another way. Any organization, comprised of imperfect people, could be unintentionally leading people down a rabbit hole of unproductive actions, which unintentionally accumulates a sort of debt: a debt of time and potentially money. I can make a pretty solid argument that purposefully choosing to drag my feet in one requested area to instead focus my time and effort on a more productive area is a more just action toward the organization as a whole.

Which leads me to one final point I can't ignore, as much as I would like: what if I'm requested to do something, and I don't have a better way to be productive with my time at that moment? I honestly don't know how to answer this question. I understand where one would say "You should probably spend that time learning that process / tool", but I don't know. I just really don't like doing things that are ineffective in the long run, even if I have the capacity to do them.

I'm going to leave this topic here and would love to hear some dialogue from you all. I hope I've represented all sides fairly, though I admit I'm still partial toward what I perceive to be "effectiveness techniques". Do you agree, or would you lean toward just doing whatever the organization requests? It's a sticky topic. Let me know your thoughts down in the comments.