“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Based on my conversation with many people over the last 2-3 years and my personal observations I observe that there is a need for solid improvement in Personal Effectiveness and Efficiency for many people.
People I spoke with also admitted that they need to get on top of these skills or habits and asked for some support.
Today I will try to uncover this subject, share some examples from my personal experience and also refer or navigate to modern tools and solutions which could be very helpful to resolve this puzzle.
Let’s start by exploring definitions of Personal Effectiveness and Personal Efficiency and understand what they mean in simple terms? I decided to refer to some external resources available on the Internet to keep these definitions as objective as possible and not as my personal view.
I liked how Personal Effectiveness was simply and accurately covered by Virtual College © (VC) and decided to share. Let’s see below how VC covers it:
“What Does Personal Effectiveness Mean?
In short, personal effectiveness means getting the best out of yourself.
It’s an approach to success that involves utilizing all of your energy, skill and motivation to develop and reach the goals you set for yourself. Individuals with good personal effectiveness tend to constantly strive to achieve more, advance their careers and grow in both a personal and professional sense.”
I trust that this is simple enough and easy to understand definition of Personal Effectiveness is helpful and draws some good picture in our minds.
And now a question… “How are you Personally Effective?”
Have you ever tried to ask this question to yourself? If you will try to answer it, then please be honest with yourself! This is the best gift you can ever give to your best self.
The good news is that it is never too late to ask that questions and start making improvements. Where to start? Well, we’ll cover the details in a little while during this conversation.
Now, let’s try to uncover what does Personal Efficiency mean. I found information from kanbanize.com very helpful:
“A truly efficient worker is the one who invests their time, efforts and other available resources into value-generating activities. The measure of the efficiency of a person can be expressed through the relationship between the lead and cycle times of their tasks.”
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To put it simply (according to zippia.com): Efficiency is doing things the right way, while effectiveness is doing the right things. Something is effective if it produces the intended result, whereas it is efficient if it functions with the least use of resources. It is possible to be effective without being efficient and vice versa. |
Now, let’s dive into the characteristics of these 2 magic areas and see what qualities they hold, so that we can easily identify them:
Efficiency:
Effectiveness
Right, we now know enough about these two areas, so that we are in a position to evaluate ourselves and understand if we are Effective or Efficient and may be even both or none of them.
As I mentioned above, people I interact with frequently ask if I can share” recipe” of how I manage my time, as they know I have too much on my plate (work, development, family, personal business,) to handle with.
I always ask the same question in exchange: “What tells you that I am good at managing my time and priorities”? Is it really so obvious to you? I wouldn’t say I am good at it.”
The thing is that we are as a human being tend to underestimate our capabilities and skills and never pay attention to some important details unless receive feedback.
So, answer to my question I ask in exchange in average comes like “We know how busy you are, you keep producing results and the things you talk about keep moving and completed”. If I get these or similar comments I usually agree.
But…. I know personally that there is a big clash in my priorities and these priorities are not only work or development related. There are many dimensions of priorities exist as life is happening now and we cannot put things in a box! So, we must think from “there is no box” paradigm in order to be fully on top of all priorities coming our way in order to be genuinely Efficient and Effective. And that was my caveat when I said above, I am not considering myself completely Effective and Efficient…until I have been introduced to Personal Agility System and start implementing it in a daily life.
I have always been structured and running things based on priorities. However, I knew that I need a well-structured solution, which helps me to bring things together and help to see the bigger picture not only for the work or life priorities, but all together. That would really help me to answer my main question “What really matter?” Because, this system was not available, sometimes I was focusing on areas which require less attention and efforts. PAS system and framework really helped me to get all pieces of the puzzle together and visualized my priorities on various levels. It is now much easier to see “What really matters” and focus on right work/life activities, which eventually make life much easier and less painful.
My main objective was to understand the areas of importance for me to focus in terms of impact and deal with those activities in first instance. Focusing on wrong activities equals to waste of productive time and hence unwanted surprises pop-up later when I was not ready.
I have achieved my bigger goal to bring all priorities together by using Personal Agility System and identified how those activities fit into my busy schedule. There actually were some activities which required stop rather than start. However, it is very individual and personal, and I needed to tailor my priority list to make it serve my specific mission and create desired balance. Balance is the key word here!
There are a lot of wonderful PAS tools, which helped me to get laser focus on “What Really Matters” for me. In Priorities Map mapping activities by personal/work/development & other helped a lot. Also, marking activities with Urgency status helps as well; I can decide which of the activities make me Happy and most importantly it is possible to visualize and celebrate little successes and see how they are growing up. Celebrate is another key word here! This is something which is NOT done by most of the people. And it is wrong. It brings so many happy moments when we celebrate on a daily basis.
I also liked the Bread Come trailer tool, which helps to see a cumulative progress of Done & Completed activities on a weekly basis and that is something which boosts up confidence and positivity levels massively.
Overall, I liked the philosophy of the PAS. You first help yourself to become organized and effective/efficient and then you help others to achieve the same. As they say, “A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle”. The more candles we light, the brighter will be the environment around us, and smarter and happier people will be serving our society. This is a great contribution to growing a healthier, self-confident, and sustained future. Isn’t that beautiful?
I now want to recognize the advantage of the “Forces Map”. It is an amazing tool, which enables to visualize what is on horizon for the period beyond 2 weeks and keeps you awake and alerted. That way it becomes possible to link near and long-term priorities and apply “inspect and adapt” approach as more information becomes available.
I personally think that PAS is a great tool for businesspeople, senior managers, and those who have a lot on the plate to handle; this system is definitely helps to boost personal effectiveness and efficiency (we now know what they mean 😊) and get on top of the priorities people have on agenda. Either personally, or via recognized practitioner trainings in just within 4-8 weeks’ time people can change their lives dramatically by learning PAS and how it helps to point laser focus on “What’s really matter” for them.
I am very happy and open to connect and guide on this journey those who really want to move from Personal Effectiveness & Efficiency basics straight to Athletics!
It is a right time now to ask yourself a question “What Really Matter?” And remember it is never late!
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