Which is more appealing to you? Efficiency or Effectiveness?
Efficiency is the ability to accomplish something with the least amount of wasted time, money, and effort or competency in performance. Effectiveness is the degree to which something successfully produces the desired result.
The words effective and efficient both mean “capable of producing a result,” but there is a significant difference. Effective means “producing a result that is wanted.” Efficient means “capable of producing desired results without wasting materials, time, or energy.”
If you are effective, you do a job properly; if you are efficient, you do it quickly and easily. For example, researching at the library can be effective, but using the internet is often more efficient.
Are you confused yet?
When something is effective, it produces a result even if it takes some unnecessary resources to do so. When something is efficient, not only does it create a result, but it does so quickly or straightforwardly using as little material, time, effort, or energy as possible.
Why, oh why am I going on about this?
I play on LinkedIn every day. (Are we connected? If not, let’s connect here.) And I have become a bit of a zealot about efficiency and effectiveness.
What I particularly detest about efficiency is the never-ending quest to reduce resources, to constantly remove or take away and to ultimately try to walk hand in hand with productivity. Both concepts, in my opinion, have had their day in the sun. I say this, having led more than 40 re-engineering and continuous improvement, profit-boosting ‘initiatives’ ultimately known for eliminating people, cutting the ‘slack’ and piling on a ton of frustration to too many innocent lives.
I much prefer effectiveness. Especially these days. Doing the right thing. Producing a result that is wanted or desired. In short, moving towards success.
Effectiveness beats efficiency every single time
Efficiency pounds into us; we always must be producing, we always must be hustling, and we always must be busy. Yet, how much of our day is spent on wasted busyness? You don’t have to answer. We both know it’s tons.
Effectiveness says we can see that what we did today furthered our goals and objectives for the next quarter and the following year. As a result, effectiveness says we can concentrate on only those we need to do and those that ‘move our needle’ forward.
I discovered a way to be effective and want to share that with you today. Here is Your Successful Day pdf for you to print out.
Your Successful Day
All on one piece of paper. Down the left-hand side is room for you to make notes about your big annual goals, your smaller quarterly goals and the key things you want to focus on. I call these your daily success habits.
In the middle is the stuff for today. What is your focus or power hour? What project tasks do you need to be paying attention to, and what are the daily to-do tasks that you need to do to move the annual and quarterly goals along?
The right-hand side is what you complete at the end of the day — by hand.
Here’s how it works
Print out a new page every day. The left column stays the same or is updated every quarter. Adjust the middle column every day as needed. Work on the items throughout the day. Reflect and write on the right-hand column at the end of the day, the week and the quarter. Rinse and repeat.
You always have the four main things you are trying to accomplish in front of you this year and this quarter. As well, you always have your daily success habits necessary to have a perfect day. Plus, you always have your main to-do items that further those annual, quarterly and monthly targets. Then you only work on those things. Plus, you have a record of what you accomplished and can look back with pride, with trepidation and even with excitement.
I have been working this way for about a month, and holy moly. I have reverted to being incredibly effective again. The sh&t I am getting done, making happen and moving forward is astounding. I am doing what I NEED to — to make progress on the identified opportunities for this year.
That is why I am sharing it with you. So that you, too, can have an incredibly effective 2022.
I know you have big goals, dreams and aspirations.
And we are quickly approaching the end of January where most of those ideas get dropped by the wayside. So instead, I want you to have your best year ever.
This little tool might help get you there — in your most effective way.
Drop me a line if you need help using this.