What is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness?
Efficiency is putting the ladder on the wall and climbing it down the other side of the wall as fast as possible. Effectiveness is knowing on which wall to put the ladder.
Some people learn in life, either by experience or modeling, to cherish hard work. While this is important and undoubtedly correlated with positive outcomes, it’s certainly not the most important.
Some people hear “strategy” and understand “procedure” or “technique” and hear “planning” and hear “lack of liberty” because some of the most relevant representations of these have been expressed strongly.
Some people consider experience as a relevant source of learning. Hard work, trying and failing, and persevering on one’s own path are currently mantra for many. Still, for other people, it is the poorest form of learning.
So if running after some unrelenting standards must be a precious value to ensure quality, it seems weird that some of those who promote them (despite the qualities and advantages it defers to consumers of their products and services) are so tired, bored, unnerved, and tense. Something doesn’t quite add up.
There is no need for conflict. Things can be done fast and best. You may learn through modeling more effectively than through experience – if you have suitable models (finding them requires skill). You may plan and enjoy your life. You may strategize and find opportunities to creatively move in freedom. You may work enough and intelligently. Providing the best quality can be a rewarding experience during the process. Want to know how to get there? Here is some advice I find helpful.
- Ask yourself every day or as often as possible: what little change, added to my performance baseline, can make an outstanding difference?
- What other perspectives can this be seen from?
- How are others succeeding, and why? What can be replicated?
- What is the proper structure for getting the results envisioned?
- How will this be primarily done in 5 years?
- Who has the proper experience, results, and motivation to take into consideration as a model?
- How do you see yourself from the outside when having the goal completed? Backtrack from that moment: what will you be doing a week earlier, a month earlier?
- How is seeing the bigger picture helping you with deciding differently?
- How is this working plan helping you today with the perfect plan you mean to do tomorrow?
- How does changing the people you work with/for support you in making a bigger impact with fewer efforts?
- What other useful, important things might you be doing with your efforts if you had more time?
- How could the people you work with/for make your work/life easier?
- What other people could you choose to work with/for, and how could you find them?
- What other goals might be more worthy of your efforts?
- How would change the challenges you confront support you in developing yourself?
- Who would get an award for doing what you are already doing?
- What would make you able to choose better?
- In what context is the kind of hard work you do more appreciated or featured?
- Who would benefit the most from your efforts?
- Who would care more about your deeper intentions?
- How could you reinvent your work?
(keep reading ↓)
How do you think about your efforts now? Do they seem more intelligent? Now that you can do more innovative work, you may choose if and in which direction you prefer to work hard.
What does SMART mean in goal management?
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-limited
For example, consider such a table that can be used to detail and support any goal formulation to make sure it can be measured in tasks, time, and units, making it achievable in a realistic timeframe set.
How could I improve this goal, working smarter and less, using just some of the questions I recommended?
- I could use an application that would correct my errors as I type (such as https://www.grammarly.com/)
- I could record my voice reading the content of an article and delegate it to someone to transcribe it.
- I could delegate the translation into English from Romanian of several articles I already wrote.
- I could write useful copy to promote my services as posts which would also do interesting reading
- I could write helpful articles for my clients.
- Make a plan of how many clients I want to gain using my articles on this blog.
- Use the time saved to serve existing customers and develop strategies to find new ones.
|
SMART goal |
Motivation |
Tasks |
Time-limited |
|
What? |
Why? |
What specifically? |
How much? (for each article) |
| Publish 2 posts/month on Analytic Vision, monthly, covering 2018 all the subjects in the Excel file (24 posts/year)
|
Contribution
Support Professionalism Enjoyment |
1. update the excel ideas file | 1. 5 mins |
| 2. design structure | 2. 5 mins | ||
| 3. create content | 3. 20-90 mins | ||
| 4. check the content | 4. 10-20 mins | ||
| 5. publish content | 5. 10 mins | ||
| 6. share content | 6. 2 mins |
Marcus Victor Grant
Copyright © Marcus Victor Grant 2017-present, all rights reserved.
The materials on this blog are subject to this disclaimer.
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