You can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year and still accomplish nothing. On the other hand, you can strategically focus and for a much shorter time and deliver incredible results. Which would you prefer?
Being efficient means doing things well. The problem with focusing all your energy on simply being efficient, is that you could be doing all the wrong things, really well.
By doing a large number of unimportant things that are unrelated to your goals or desired outcome you do very little to help yourself achieve any measurable level of success.
Sure an efficient person may look great from the outside.
- Checking off boxes on the to-do list
- Creating impressive reports and presentationsand
- Bragging about their ability to work, work, work, with no breaks at all.
- Designing bullet lists where a simple paragraph would have done just fine…
Workaholics aren’t heroes. Meetings can poison. -David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried from “Rework”
What if by focusing on only the most important, results producing tasks, you were able to cut your workday in half? Or what if by focusing on the end instead of the means, you were able to produce twice as much during your normal workday?
Think of the effects being twice as productive would have on your career, and your life.
Sound too good to be true?
It’s not. This is the difference between being efficient and being effective.
Efficiency says we’ll get things done, effectiveness says we’ll get the right things done. No doing just for the sake of doing.
The Perfect Combination
If you’re really looking to take your business game to the next level then may I suggest working towards being Efficiently Effective.
The fastest way to reach the status of the Efficient Effective is through proper planning, preparation, and goal setting.
By deciding on what tasks and activities will have the greatest impact on your success and then relentlessly pursuing them you can’t help but find success.
I’ve found the best way to be Efficiently Effective is to:
- Plan my day ahead of time
- Review my daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals every morning (even for 5 minutes)
- Identify my MIT’s (most important tasks) to accomplish these goals and then allocate time for them
- Turn off all distractions when working (phone to silent, browser windows closed)
- Limit email checking and social media to 4 times a day (and plan these times out)
Even these few small tips when practiced consistently can have a huge impact on your overall level of productivity.
