Why it’s important to be Effective, Efficient, and Productive August 15, 2020 – Posted in: Personal potential – Tags: coach, effective, efficiency, efficient, performance, productive, productivity

What’s the difference between effective, efficient, or Productive?
How can these things be increased?

Let’s Dive in…

But before we get into specifics let’s clarify the difference between productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness because although they are very similar, they’re not exactly the same thing.performance coach

The term, Productivity refers to the quantity of work produced by a team or individual.

Efficiency on the other hand refers to the resources used to produce that work. The more effort or resources required to do a job is the less efficient process.

Finally, effectiveness refers refers to the degree to which something accomplishes the desired results.

If you are investing money, we can measure effectiveness based on its return on the dollar. If you are working out, it’s the number of calories you burn in a hour. And If you are investing time, it’s the productivity you are able to get out of each minute whether it be measured in dollars, production, or creative work.

Thats also why it’s important to Identify your purpose, align your passion, and leverage your potential like we cover in more detail: performance coach

Efficiency can be measured in so many different ways, not just at work. Money, energy, and time are just some basic countable ways of understanding efficiency but there are literally hundreds of ways of understanding what it really means to be efficient.

I want to clarify things and bring things down to the most basic measurement. Let’s measure production and productivity in terms of LIFE. Life includes all input and output possibilities.

You see, in life, we have to manage everything all at the same time, and unfortunately, it’s not always so easy to do. The things we are forced to put our time and energy into are often obligations whether it be in units of energy, stress, money, or even years of our life.

It’s why I talk about Performance because it is a word that can include productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness. Although we have already defined these words. We don’t need to be more specific about what these terms actually mean because it all depends on the context. What we are really talking about is Life. This is the real issue

So how to increase productivity in Life?

Being effective and increasing efficiency and living the lives that we want for ourselves needs to come from a strong understanding of our own personal values, personality, and nature.

For example, If you value creativity as the most important thing in your life and you have ideas constantly popping in and out of your head. Then you know that even a high-paying office job wouldn’t be enough to really make you happy.

This is why the person who produces or performs optimally is not necessary the person with the most money or possessions. Some people prefer to measure their success in ways that are difficult to count or measure. They may choose to live a stress-free life or a life spent in their passions.

This is why it is difficult to measure life efficiency or to calculate real productivity. Because as Albert Einstein says,

‘‘not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts”

Don’t assume that because someone is massively successful that they are actually effective. There are tons of people with loads of money in their bank account who are not happy. If you are being productive in generating dollars but not in manifesting the reality that you really want. Then you aren’t being productive at all…

Remember, life includes all units of measurement… effectiveness, productivity, and efficiency. Since these things have different definitions. We measure them differently. Sometimes, we can’t even calculate things because there is no current way of counting them.

Someone who has succeeded in one area may have actually failed to create the life they want and this is actually the biggest failure possible. Because they have failed to understand their own values, passions, and personality.

The person who is most effective is the person with the greatest self-understanding. He knows exactly where he wants to go. He finds efficient and productive ways to go about his personal objectives. Once you understand your own values you can start allocating your resources and energy in these directions and away from things that don’t fulfill you.

This is why we have people making a million playing videogames on youtube and why we have high-paid street artists like Banksy who are multimillionaires. These people didn’t necessarily set out to make money, they simply understood the kind of work they wanted to do and found ways to leverage these things to became successful.

Efficiency

Financial gain is only one indicator of someone who might be a peak performer. Another peak performer might be living out of his Volkswagen and surfing every day. This person is a success because he has understood his values, personality, and passions and successfully achieved it.

Efficiency in life simply means that you have managed your life in a way that is pleasing to you. The surfer living out of his car might have financial limitations but he also has unlimited time, freedom, and happiness. A multimillionaire CEO might hate his life despite his outward success.

So I ask you. Who is more effective in life? Of course. It’s the person who understands the real value of life, even in uncountable ways.

The good news is that the CEO can change in a day and realize his true passions at any moment. It just takes a new level of consciousness. The surfer isn’t trapped in his passion for surfing either and can make changes whenever he chooses. The key is to know yourself and put yourself in the right direction as the environment changes around you in this life.

Effectiveness will improve depending on your understanding of your environment and your values. The most important thing for you in living a life that you appreciate is in understanding your own values and living true to them.

This is true for individuals, businesses, or organizations.

We can’t say that the CEO is effective in a real sense if he is not pointed towards his values. However, if he IS following his values and passions then we can say he has achieved some level of real success.

We can now examine how he spends each hour of his day. How efficient his systems are, and how effective his decision-making processes are. But even if we calculate his productivity and efficiency in quantifiable ways. We still can not say with certainty how effective he really is because professional success is only one area of life.

etc

We have many areas including personal values, health, family, personal well-being, passions, hobbies, etc.

Only once we are well aligned with our true values can we improve in specific areas like a basketball player measuring statistics or an architect creating more complex designs. Only once we are working in the proper framework can we improve methods, systems, imagination. And possibilities that are in line with our objectives.

This is Life effectiveness.

Now, Lets talk about flow state…

Flow state is when you are in the zone and feeling fully energized, involved, and absorbed in what you are doing whatever the task may be. It happens when the tasks you are undertaking are at equal levels of your highest capabilities and every energy of your being is channeled to this one activity.

Like a professional archer taking aim at a difficult target. We reach outside of ourselves ignoring time and space trusting all our instincts and previous training to attain new levels we have never previously reached.

When you reach a flow state you are in a level of performance that is trancelike. You feel inspiration and genius flowing through you like electricity. You focus on a small target and your being opens to limitless consciousness and intelligence. And you let the arrow fly and you make the impossible shot.

If you are well aligned with your values and passions this sensation will occur more and more frequently.

Transcending athletes, genius investors, inspired athletes, top-level psychologists, trend breaking artists. These are examples of people who regularly reach the flow state. If you experience flow state it’s because you have found a special talent in your life and it’s a strong indicator of what kind of work you should be doing.

An alignment of your passion, skills, and values in all the various areas of Life.

Performance…