I hope my explanation is useful and not too far off.

You can determine how hard your pump is working by measuring the flow and comparing it to the rated flow on the pump spec sheet.

Pump water into a bucket from your system and time it...for example, if it takes 2 minutes to fill a five gallon bucket... 5 gallons / 2 minutes equals 2.5 gpm. If your pump is spec'd to run 10 gpm max...you are taxing the pump most likely. This is a rather ball-park-ish method, but it will give you an idea if your close to an efficient system or on the extreme.

Sump pumps are the most efficient when there is little head/lift with NO restrictions (nozzles). You are mainly wanting to move water with no spray.

More positive displacement pumps focus on building pressure so that the flow can overcome the nozzle restrictions.

Fish on!,
Noel