The problem with efficiency is that many people focus too much on it and not nearly enough on effectiveness, the other critical piece of the puzzle.

True productivity requires both, but effectiveness is much more important and valuable than efficiency. It’s great to be efficient while you work and get a lot of stuff done, but in the end, it won’t make any difference unless you choose the right things to work on.

Without effectiveness, efficiency is irrelevant. That’s why management guru Peter Drucker says that effectiveness is the critical quality that distinguishes goal achievers from everyone else.

True achievement is not just about getting things done. Much more important than how much “stuff” you get done is whether your actions are helping you create the results you truly want in your business and your life.

True achievement is about doing things that are significant, meaningful, and that will make a difference in your life. It’s about pursuing goals and completing projects that lead you toward a happier, more balanced, and more fulfilled life.

One of the best ways to increase your effectiveness in the short-term is through prioritizing and weekly planning, which helps you choose the right things to work on so you can get them done efficiently when the time comes.

But true effectiveness also means that you can connect your daily actions to something bigger, like your goals, your vision, or your purpose in life. That’s how you make sure that you are truly doing the things that matter most to you.

To increase your effectiveness in the short-term, ask yourself regularly, “What am I ultimately trying to accomplish?” “What’s the best use of my time this week?” and “What do I need to do to move closer to my goals?”

Longer term, you’ll want to consider your goals and what you want your life to be like 5 or 10 years down the road. To get started with that process, I recommend you look at my Goals To Action training programs.

But to do that, you need to know the difference between the two, because it’s pretty easy to get them mixed up.

Efficiency represents the time and effort involved in doing something based on the approach that you decide to use.

Increasing efficiency means finding a faster, easier or less wasteful way of accomplishing some result.

For example, using a word processor is more efficient than using a typewriter because it’s a quicker, simpler and easier way to get the job done.

Effectiveness is very different. It’s about whether the actions you are taking produce the results that you want.

In the example of the letter, effectiveness would be about the message in the letter. It would be about choosing the right words and using the right tone so that the letter communicates the ideas you want in a clear way and it has the effect you want on the reader.

Effectiveness is about choosing the right strategy to use in order to produce the results that you want, while efficiency is about the time/effort involved while implementing that strategy.

Productivity is a result of both efficiency and effectiveness.

You need both to be very productive.

If you have effectiveness but not efficiency, you’ll get the results that you want, but you’ll waste a lot of time, effort and energy in the process.

If you have efficiency but not effectiveness, you’ll get a lot of “stuff” done, but it won’t produce the results that you ultimately want.

Efficiency is about doing things the right way and effectiveness is about doing the right things.

One of the best ways to increase your efficiency is to think regularly about the WAY that you do things and ask yourself, “Is there a simpler, easier or better way to do this?”

You may need to experiment with different approaches to see if you can find a more efficient or less wasteful way of getting to the same result.

Another way to increase efficiency is to use technology to automate, speed up, simplify or make an activity easier. Writing a letter with a word processor instead of a typewriter is a good example.

In this article, I focused on efficiency… in the next article we’ll look at the other critical component: effectiveness.

But for now…

1) Think about how you can do your most important tasks in a simpler, faster or easier way

2) Prioritize and plan your time so you invest it on valuable and important activities

If you want to discover other great ways to improve your time management skills and be more productive, check out the Be More Productive time management training program…

It’s a great resource for people who want to know how to take control of their time and really get things done.

“Rodger, I think you have outdone yourself with this program [Psychology of Procrastination].

Lesson #4 is where I began to have not one but several light bulb moments. Doing the workbook is the clincher.  Somehow writing down the things I am currently procrastinating on and then writing down the why for each one was a very freeing moment.

As they say, “Confession is good for the soul” admitting out loud (actually on paper) that I just simply do not like to do certain things seem to give me freedom to make the next step.

I discovered all sorts of emotions for various things that I continually procrastinate on, including; dislike, resentment, guilt, fear and perfectionism to name a few.

I chose my first target and set about to write down the benefits of achieving it. I was actually excited to get started on something that I have been putting off forever. I am happy to say that I am making progress. I think the workbook will be the key to keeping on keeping on, at least for me.

I know I have a lot of work to do in a lot of different areas, because procrastination had become a monster of a habit with me, but now I have hope because you have given me the tools to work with.

Thank you so very much”

Mary M.

>>>MY COMMENTS:

You are welcome Mary. I’m proud of you for taking action and making progress on that thing you’d been putting off. Way to go!

While doing research for this course, I found a surprisingly large number of different, sometimes even contradictory, explanations for why procrastination happens.

They included things like anxiety, overwhelm, fear, task avoidance, stress, perfectionism, desire for fun, rebellion against authority… and the list goes on and on.

That’s why it’s not very surprising that many “overcoming procrastination” articles you find on the Internet give you a long laundry list of tips for you to try out… Things like “just do it,” “do the worst part first,” or “break your project up into smaller steps.”

I guess the idea is that if you try them all, at least one of them is bound to work.

But as you found out, a much better approach is to figure out WHY you are procrastinating and then use that awareness to find the RIGHT strategies that will work best for those specific causes.

I think the real key to overcoming procrastination is to realize that ALL procrastination happens in your mind. It’s always the result of the way you think about your projects, tasks and activities.

So it’s really these thinking habits and thinking processes that you have going on in your head that lead to virtually ALL forms of procrastination.

And since procrastination happens in your mind, that’s where you need to end it.

That’s really what the 5-step process in the course is all about.

It’s a new thinking process that NATURALLY helps you understand why you are procrastinating and NATURALLY helps you take action instead.

At first, I recommend that you keep using the workbook to help you SEE this new thinking process out in the open. As you found out, seeing your thoughts out in front of you not only helps you become more aware of them but it also helps you recognize the hidden emotions they generate.

With a little bit of time and practice, you’ll find that you can internalize this new thinking process and start doing it in your head without needing to use the workbook. Then you’ll turn it into a new thinking habit you can use to overcome procrastination whenever you want to.

Great job and keep me posted on your future success stories.

That’s why summer is often a great time to work on important long-term projects for your business (work ON your business and not just IN it). Things like improving your marketing or website, setting up systems, building relationships, developing new products, etc.

Here are 5 practical tips to help you get more done this summer…

1) Take A Vacation

What!? How can taking a vacation help you get more done? Well, if you’ve been working hard for too long and haven’t taken sufficient time off, a good vacation could be the most important thing you need to recharge and be more productive for the rest of the summer.

Why? Because you are not a machine! Research studies show that performance and productivity increase with proper time off for recharging and renewing. Even if you can’t take one or two full weeks off this summer, a few long weekends here and there can help and make a real difference in your productivity.

Not only that, but Leaf Van Boven of the University of Colorado, has found that having experiences like vacations make us happier than buying material things. So to be happier and more productive, take a vacation this summer!

2) Focus, Focus, Focus

Pick your 3 most important projects and goals for the summer and focus most of your time, energy and effort on them. Focused time and energy are much more powerful than diffused or scattered time and energy.

3) Join a Mastermind group

Mastermind groups have been around for a long time, but they were popularized in the 1930′s by Napoleon Hill’s classic Think & Grow Rich.

A Mastermind is a group of people who come together to support each other and achieve a common goal or purpose. In my experience, they are one of the best and most effective ways to get things done and make tremendous progress on your top goals, projects & priorities.

4) Use an Effective Productivity System

A productivity system gives you a consistent way to keep track of everything that you need to do, prioritize so you focus on what’s most important and execute to get things done. If you don’t have a good system, developing one could be a great project for the rest of the summer.

5) Get a Coach

There’s a reason top sports professionals, executives and entrepreneurs use coaching… coaching works! There are lots of different types of coaches that can help you get the results you want.

Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, says that the best advice he ever got was “to have a coach.”

Bob Nardelli, former CEO, Home Depot said, “I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities.”

Because it’s the foundation for everything else. People that don’t value their time usually don’t care whether they are productive or not, and they typically don’t do anything about it.

I’ve come to realize that many people don’t value their time very much, if at all. Perhaps they feel that no matter how much they waste their time today, they’ll just get more tomorrow. They see an endless river of time flowing their way one day after the next.

But you and I know that while this “river of time” may seem endless, it’s really NOT. Time WILL run out for all of us.

Management guru Peter Drucker says that time is one of our most precious and valuable resources. That’s why time management training and coaching provide such a great return on investment (ROI), because productivity gains and time savings usually have a direct effect on your bottom line.

Being more productive means you can get more done in less time, which is like getting extra productive time each day to work on your important projects or to do the things you enjoy most.

This chart shows the cumulative yearly value of gaining just 30, 45 and 60 minutes of productive time each day at a rate of $40 per hour.

As you can see, we’re talking thousands of dollars in added value even at the very conservative range of only 30 minutes of gained productive time each day, which considering how much time the average person wastes in a day is a VERY realistic and easy goal to reach.

But the biggest financial payoffs happen when you start focusing on higher-value projects and activities. When you prioritize and start spending more of your time on important, higher-value activities, it’s a lot like getting an instant pay raise.

When you spend your time on things like improving your marketing, increasing sales, creating new products or developing new passive income streams, that’s when productivity gains can really pay off big time.

You are not only able to get more done in less time, but you are actually spending your time on more important and higher value projects and activities. When you get to this point, you can actually start to work less and end up earning more.

Even if you are an employee working for someone else, spending more of your time on higher-value activities means you become more valuable to your employer, which can lead to promotions and raises.

The point is that becoming more productive is not just about getting more stuff done in less time, but investing your time more wisely in higher value projects and activities.

Calculating Your Own Hourly Time Value

Here’s a simple exercise (from Dan Kennedy) that shows you just how valuable your time really is…

To calculate your hourly time value, you start with your current earning target for a year. If you are self-employed, this could be your revenue target for the year. If you are a business owner, it could be the portion of your total revenues that you directly contribute to as the owner. Just enter that value in the top box of the form below.

For example, if you are self-employed and want to make $10,000 per month, your earning target for the year would be roughly $120,000. Don’t worry about getting an exact figure, this is just a rough estimate to help you see what your time is really worth. You can also enter your total number of working days each year (default to 220), the total number of hours you work each day (default to 8), and the number of truly productive hours you have each day (which for most people is usually between 3 and 4.)

Let’s go over the results. The Minimum Value Per Hour is the absolute minimum that your hours need to be worth in order to reach your earning target and includes both productive and non-productive hours.

The Value of Productive Hours shows you how much your truly productive hours are really worth. Because this is the time when you get the truly important “money making” work done, these hours are VERY valuable compared to your non-productive hours which you can think of as “overhead.” Productive hours are NOT just for “billable” time, but also include important and highly-valuable “money making” activities like marketing and building relationships.

The Monthly Value of Adding One Productive Hour shows you how much converting one of your non-productive “overhead” hours into a productive “money making” hour each day would be worth to you after just one month.

And the Yearly Value of Adding One Productive Hour shows you the cumulative value of adding an extra productive hour each day over the course of a year.

Once you realize how much your time is really worth, you can use this information to help you make better decisions about how you spend your time. For example, you can use it to decide whether it’s better to do something yourself or outsource or delegate the work to someone else.

Or you can use it to decide if it’s worth taking on a new project or assignment, or it’s better to pass on it and focus on something more important.

How To Value Your Time And Make Productivity A Priority

You can see why valuing your time more and making productivity a priority is so important and valuable, but how do you actually do it?

One of the best ways is to put your money where your mouth is. As human beings, we will naturally value and give more attention to something we are invested in than something we are NOT invested in. You’ve probably seen these before from your own experience.

If you get a training program for free, you may skim it but probably won’t do much with it. But if you pay $20, you’ll start to look at it more carefully. And if you pay $100, $500 or $1000, you are much more likely to not only go through it but start implementing the ideas and putting them into practice. That’s just human nature.

Obviously, I’m biased, but that’s why investing in a time management training program (like Be More Productive), working with a Mastermind team or hiring a time management coach is a great way to value your time and make it a priority, because then you are much more invested and committed in your results.

Most people struggle to be as effective and efficient as we’d like to be. It’s why we always hear people asking for more hours in a day. Around the world, “I need more time!” is probably uttered millions of times each day.

Here are three time management training secrets to help you get more done.

1) Plan your week – When do you plan? Some people do it first thing in the morning; they make a list of the things they need to get done for the day. A better strategy is to spend some time during the weekend (or Monday morning) planning the upcoming week. You can then assess your goals, the steps you need to accomplish them and plan your week according to the urgent and not so urgent projects and tasks.

2) Let go of perfection – We often spend way too much time on tasks that really don’t matter that much. Perfection rarely exists and trying to perform less important tasks perfectly wastes your valuable time. Find a “good enough” balance and save your focused attention and quest for perfection for those tasks that really matter.

3) Avoid efficiency traps – Efficient and productive are not synonymous – they’re two very different words. You can be efficient and busy and not really get anything done. The secret to time management is to focus on tasks that result in accomplishing something that matters – your goals. Running errands, cleaning your desk, filing and so forth are busy tasks that make you feel busy and efficient but they’re not enhancing your productivity. You’re not achieving your goals.

Time management secrets are easy to embrace when you’re excited about your goals and you have a step by step process to achieve them.

Have you ever had a great day at work? You know, a day when everything was clicking, you felt great, and got a lot of stuff done?

Most people have had this experience at some point or another, even if it was for just a few hours instead of an entire day.

I’ll bet that during a day like this, you felt fully focused and fully engaged by your work.

Guess what? This is not an accident!

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszenthmihalyi, who has done a lot of research in this area, coined the term Flow to describe this highly productive mental state when we become completely focused, engaged and absorbed by our work.

This state is very similar to the “zone” that many professional athletes talk about when they are performing at their best.

Imagine what it would be like if you could enter this state much more frequently than you do now. Do you think you would be more productive? Would you get a lot more stuff done?

I think the answer is pretty obvious.

Well, there are certain conditions that make it much more likely that you’ll enter into this flow state.

1. Consistent focus

The ability to focus on a single activity or project for an uninterrupted block of time without getting sidetracked or distracted with unrelated things.

It takes time to enter into the flow state, so having a block of time where you can fully focus on your work is essential for flow, especially in knowledge or creative work.

2. Lack of distractions

External or internal distractions or interruptions make it very difficult to enter into a flow state because they prevent you from focusing and engaging with your work.

3. Sufficient mental, emotional and physical energy

Your mental, emotional and physical energy also play an important role. If you are too tired or fatigued physically, emotionally or mentally, it is much more difficult to enter into this flow state.

4. Meaningful contribution

If you feel that your work truly is important and meaningful, it’s much more likely to produce a state of flow. For example, when you love what you are doing and you feel it’s adding value to the world.

The more of these conditions that you can create, the more likely that you’ll experience this powerful state of flow as you work, and the more productive you will be.

The reason why I’m bringing this up is that if you can create and align these conditions on a regular basis, you can end up with some very productive periods throughout the day.

The problem is that it’s rare for these conditions to happen accidentally as part of your average day. In fact, it’s much more likely that these conditions are NOT going to happen, *unless* you take active steps to MAKE them happen.

An important step to do that is to INTENTIONALLY design your ideal day – to make a conscious decision to create the conditions that will naturally lead you to have a very productive day.

If you want to design your ideal day and plan your week to help you take control of your time and really get things done, I recommend you check out my Be More Productive training program.

It will show you how to design your ideal day, step-by-step (we cover that in Modules 1 and 2).

You can get started in just a few minutes, and learn the same techniques and strategies that have significantly increased my productivity over the years.

Automating routine tasks or finding other shortcuts can save you more time than you realize. Doing the same task a couple of dozen times a day can take up a substantial amount of time. Finding a faster way to do that task buys you time that you can spend doing more productive work, which is why finding ways to automate your work is an important principle in time management training.

Here are six time-saving ideas for automating repetitive tasks:

1. Use macros or shortcuts

Macros are a useful feature available in many programs like Microsoft Word that you can use to perform routine actions automatically. They are easy to create and fully customizable.

Keyboard shortcuts are integrated into Windows and many other operating systems, as well as individual programs. Learning these can save you time looking through menus to find the option you need.

2. Create templates for documents and emails

If you frequently write documents or emails that are essentially the same, creating templates for them can save a substantial amount of time.

Simply use your word processor or email client to create a sample document without some of the details, such as the recipient’s name, address or email.
Then when you need to send it to someone, all you have to do is open the template and add in his or her information.

If you combine this idea with a text replacement application, you can save even more time.

3. Utilize checklists to help remember steps

Some tasks involve numerous steps that are difficult to remember. For these you can make checklists detailing each step in order. Not having to guess or go back and redo things will save you more time than you spend making the checklists.

4. Use auto-complete and text replacement applications

Some software such as browsers, email programs and word processors have auto-complete features that you can take advantage of. When you start entering text, the auto-complete feature tries to guess what you are typing and brings up options.

In a browser, for example, certain search toolbars will compare what you are typing to popular searches and give you a list of terms to choose from.
Then you can select from the list instead of typing the entire request.

Other applications can expand a text snippet into a full-blown template. For example, you could type ‘esign’ and have it expand to one of your common email signatures.

5. Develop and document processes so that others can use them

At many work places, managers will develop standard processes for performing certain tasks. This makes it easier for anyone to do them.

Whether you’re a manager or not, this is a good practice. Documenting processes for things you do regularly will make it easier for anyone you delegate to, or for anyone who does your job in your absence – leaving less room for error. Even if you are the one doing the task, this process serves as a quality checklist that helps produce consistent results.

6. Create an automated system

Even if creating a macro for Outlook or developing software program is out of your area of expertise, you can often find someone to help you develop a solution using one of the freelancer matching services like Guru.com, Elance.com, or RentACoder.com

Automating things that you do regularly can save you lots of time. It also cuts down on repetitiveness and reduces boredom. These shortcuts are just a few ways you can automate repetitive tasks. Technology offers many more time-saving opportunities that you can take advantage of.

Action Steps:

1) Think about your typical day and identify the routine tasks that you do repeatedly… Do you write the same kinds of emails? Make the same kinds of changes to a document?

2) Think about ways that you could automate, simplify or use shortcuts to speed up these repetitive tasks.

3) Pick one small change you could make this week to get started… For example, you could try an auto-complete application and use it for email templates that you write often.

Leave a comment with some of the ways you are going to automate some of your repetitive tasks…

A clean desk is a sign of

… a sick mind. (Most common one, but I don’t really agree

… a cluttered desk drawer

… a cluttered/empty/diseased mind.

… prestige.

… someone with way too much time on their hands.

… efficiency and effectiveness!

Take your pick, but I think the last one is right on!

Here are some ideas for organizing your office without going overboard.

1) The first step is to plan

Before you go out and buy more and more organizers, think about the activities you do most often and the logical place where you do those activities.

For example, have a specific place for client files and another your main projects.

2) Consider different ways to arrange or setup your deks

An L-Shaped desk can be a useful way to setup your main work area.

The secondary surface will often be more than enough space to keep necessary documents while you can keep your primary desk space clear.

Setting up your office this way may help you focus on a single thing at a time without getting distracted with clutter, and if you need to meet with clients you have a natural place to do so.

If you’re concerned about something important falling through the cracks (you know, out of sight, out of mind), use an effective planner to help you keep track of the things you need to do. But avoid using your desk like a to-do list.

3) Make sure each item has a logical “home” where it naturally belongs based on how you use it

Instead of simply putting things away where there is available space, consider where you’ll actually use the item when you need it. That’s probably a good “home” for it. Have a special space for any work related documents that you need to access quickly.

After you have established “activity zones” for all your main work activities, then you can go to your office supply store and get any containers or gadgets to help you organize. But only after you’ve established a logical home for all your items.

Maybe you’ve seen tasks divided into four categories based on their importance and urgency before, and you may be wondering what it’s all about…

• Category I    Tasks that are both important and urgent
• Category II   Tasks that are important but not urgent
• Category III  Tasks that are urgent but not important
• Category IV   Tasks that are neither urgent nor important

First, let me give you a bit of background as to why this is relevant. A key principle in time management is that important things are not always urgent and urgent things are not always important. So you want to distinguish between importance and urgency when deciding what to do.

Do you remember the old saying “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”? Well, urgent things tend to be very squeaky and they grab your attention.

If you aren’t careful, you can spend a lot of time dealing with urgent things, even when they are not very important, and end up not having enough time to deal with the important stuff that is not as urgent.

Productive people purposefully spend most of their time on important things, whether or not they are urgent.

By spending time on important items before they become urgent, they avoid many of the crises, problems, and “fires” that come up when you neglect important things for too long.

If you want to spend more of your time on important activities, you obviously have to be able to distinguish between important and unimportant tasks.

Here are five simple questions that can help you get started:

1. What are the benefits?

What are some of the benefits that you’ll receive from completing this task. The more important the benefits, the more important the task.

2. What would happen if I didn’t do this task?

Ask yourself what would be the consequences of delaying or ignoring this task. Important tasks tend to have serious consequences. So, if there are no consequences for ignoring this task, it may not be that important.

3. What am I ultimately trying to accomplish?

How does this task fit in with your current projects, goals, and objectives?

4. What’s the payoff for completing the task?

An important task tends to have a good payoff or return-on-investment for the time and effort you will put in to get it done.

5. Can I link it to my mission, vision, or goals?

Any task that contributes to your long-term goals in some way is bound to be important.

Using these 5 questions will help you decide whether a task is important or not. Then it’s just a matter of consciously choosing to spend more of your time on important projects and tasks.