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PRODUCTIVITY, EFFICIENCY, EFFECTIVENESS, and FOCUS – Doing the Next Right Thing

Written by: David Bohl

Article Overview: There has been an exponential explosion of information available for increasing personal productivity, so much so that it’s become known as productivity porn (or, for those active on the Net and looking to avoid spam blockers, productivity pr0n). Productivity Pr0n consists of those techniques, tools, and all-out systems for getting more organized and maximizing personal productivity.

PRODUCTIVITY, EFFICIENCY, EFFECTIVENESS, and FOCUS – Doing the Next Right Thing

There has been an exponential explosion of information available for increasing personal productivity, so much so that it’s become known as productivity porn (or, for those active on the Net and looking to avoid spam blockers, productivity pr0n). Productivity Pr0n consists of those techniques, tools, and all-out systems for getting more organized and maximizing personal productivity.

This full-fledged industry has given rise to Productivity Nirvana, Productivity Gurus, an army of Life Hackers (those who provide productivity tips), and Life Optimizers.

But something’s missing here. If virtually everybody is doing these things, where’s the edge? How can you find out what works for you? Where can you bring your unique strengths and values to the value proposition?

The problem with productivity, as it’s come to be known, is that it doesn’t go far enough. Productivity is a nebulous concept. Its objectives are limited, if not vague.

David Allen, THE Productivity Guru, said: “You don’t have time to do any project, because you actually can’t do a project – you can only do action steps.”

Productivity is about doing things and that simply isn’t enough. It’s a good place to start, but you’ll need to move on from there.

You need to take things to the next level, so you focus on efficiency.

Arnold Bennett said: “A sense of the value of time--that is, of the best way to divide one's time into one's various activities--is an essential preliminary to efficient work; it is the only method of avoiding hurry.”

In other words, efficiency is about doing things right. Becoming more efficient allows you to accomplish specific tasks in the most proficient and cost-effective (in terms of time and money), as well as least wasteful, ways possible.

Being productive and efficient together isn’t sufficient, though. Doing many things proficiently that wind up taking a lot of your time doesn’t help if you aren’t able to choose the best and most important things to focus on.

That’s where effectiveness comes in. Simply put, effectiveness is doing the right things. It means possessing the ability to direct your energies toward and accomplish those things that bring you nearer to your goals and objectives.

Jawaharlal Nehru said: “Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends. “
Being effective essentially eliminates the human drive to be busy for the sake of being busy, procrastinating, and becoming diverted by focusing on the unimportant. Effectiveness is where we all want to operate.

It all makes sense and sounds simple, right?

But wait a minute …. Now you ask: “Of all the things in front of me that are available and that I’m fully capable of doing, how do I determine the “right things” to do first – to do NOW?”
Congratulations! You’ve hit the nail on the head. You’ve uncovered THE secret to “productivity” that you don’t commonly read about.

The key to being productive, efficient, and effective is simply to do the next right thing.
Walter Savage Landor said: “People, like nails, lose their effectiveness when they lose direction and begin to bend.”

How do you figure out what the next right thing is?

The best way I know to describe this is to suggest that you become apperceptive. It’s about being focused, centered, and engaged. To strive to do the next right thing, you want to:

• You want to be introspective, constantly examining your thoughts, beliefs, and values to relate what you’re experiencing – what’s directly in front of you that you want to accomplish – to what you’ve experienced in the past.

• You want to bring all your creative talents to bear upon the moment at hand to look at opportunities and challenges from all angles, considering the alternatives, and opening your mind to the new possibilities.

• You want to take the time to stop and think about what you’re doing and where you’re going – to have a sense of direction.

• You want to operate on instinct. You want to be able to know and act without having to undergo the process of examination at every turn.
You want to reorder your life so that all the extraneous clutter is removed from your thought process.

Remove the distractions – it’s fairly straightforward to figure out what they are –and you’ll find yourself more alert, awake, aware, and alive. You’ll find that you’ll be clearer and more focused about doing the next right thing.

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Article Tags: Arnold Bennett, effectiveness, exponential explosion, Jawaharlal Nehru, personal productivity, Productivity Nirvana, productivity tips, value proposition



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Re: Great start, but no finish - My advise is FOCUS on your business. Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy. Concept is simple. 1- Have a good idea; 2- Build your business on it; 3- Monetize your business; 4- Promote it; 5- Build list of responsive customers; 6- Maintain You Business. Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW. Orxan
How do you know if you have a good idea? - [quote="orxan":3118uboz]My advise is FOCUS on your business. Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy. Concept is simple. 1- Have a good idea; 2- Build your business on it; 3- Monetize your business; 4- Promote it; 5- Build list of responsive customers; 6- Maintain You Business. Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW. Orxan[/quote:3118uboz] Thanks orxan! But how do you know if you truly have a good idea or not? If we ask ourselves, we may be suffering from tunnel vision. On the other hand, friends/family may try to discourage us from pursuing a small business because of their own fears, while others will simply give us an empty "you can do it!" line.
Books that should be written - [quote:1m0dcpd7]"The Idiots Guide To Sticking With One Thing At A Time and Not Doing Something New All The Time" [/quote:1m0dcpd7] I myself am a 'constructive' procrastinator... I don't know if I'm alone in this. I have about six or seven projects I'm working on at any given time. I get one project almost done... then my interest is piqued by another project and I work on that... I get burnt out and move to another...I know I do this so I have it arranged such that once I get bored or burnt out with one project, I can step right back into project 1 - or 2 or 3, and get that a little bit more done before moving on to something else. As long as you're organized and know where all your reference material/idea sheets are when you're ready to get back to work on each project, it should be fine. I also find that by stepping away from a project - I still work on it in the recesses of my mind so that when I go back to it - it's with some good ideas that I wouldn't have had if I'd continued on with it originally. Maybe I should write a book on how to Procrastinate Constructively... I've actually thought about doing that...because most people procrastinate, don't they...and very few are ever able to stop.
Re: Who hates cold calling? - Have to say, cold calling is about 40% of my daily job. So calling up prospects these days is a walk in the park. However, it took me a long time before I was half decent at it. These days I'm quite effective. I tend to stick to the same guidelines. In a way, these guidelines have helped my career in a way. Firstly, I wouldn't dream of picking up the phone unless I knew my product. I'd hate to get caught out on a simple objections. Secondly, when I call up I ask for the decision maker. If they're not available, (in a meeting, out of the office) I will never pitch the person who takes my call. Normally its the secretary. I'll just say 'no problem, when would you recommend be the best time to catch him?' Thirdly, listen - listen- and listen. In the early days I used to talk over the prospect, and end up wondering why they often said no. Anyway, hope it helps. It's a bit of a knack but anyone can get it. There's a newsletter I've belonged to for a long while and they send you all types of stuff on cold calling. Thing is I've forgotten what its called. I'll have to check my emails and let you know.
My reading log - Hi OmnivoreInk, Before starting my business, I read the following books as research: -"The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki -"The AdSense Code" by Joel Comm -"Don't Think Pink" and "Mind Your X's and Y's" by Lisa Johnson And since then I've continued my "research" by reading (in this order): -"Technical Tennis" by Rod Cross -"For One More Day" by Mitch Albom -"The Twits" by Roald Dahl -"Little Black Book of Connections" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne -"The Profitable Retailer" by Doug Fleener -"Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell -"Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis -"Little Green Book of Getting Your Way" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling And I'm currently reading and am in the process of finishing the following: -"There's No Such Thing as Public Speaking" by Jeanette and Roy Henderson -"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell -"The Book of Tells" by Peter Collett -"Little Red Book of Sales Answers" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"Chocolates on the Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience" by Jonathan M. Tisch -"The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity" by Julia Cameron -"The Inner Game of Tennis" by Timothy Gallwey


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