Efficiency and Effectiveness

Efficiency and Effectiveness

My father-in-law, Jack Grady, loves telling the story about when he asked his daughter (my wife Kyah) to vacuum the stairs. He recalls that an hour after her working hard at vacuuming she reported back to him that she was finished. Upon inspection, he found that she had missed several spots and made her do it again. She was mad because she had “worked hard” and he told her “it doesn’t matter how hard you work, all that matters is that you get the job done right”.

Jack Grady

After working with thousand of executives and top producers, I have found that the difference between an ultra producer and an average producer is efficiency and effectiveness.

Having a goal of constant and never-ending improvement around being more Efficient and Effective is the most productive goal anyone can have. This is a goal that has no finish line. There are always ways to be more Efficient and Effective. When you strive to maximize your time, you will be amazed at how much more enjoyable the things you do are. The worst feeling in the world is to feel like you’re working hard and not making progress.

Here are the top 3 tips to being Efficient and Effective:

1. Delegate – Focus 95% of your Income Producing Activity (IPA) time doing only things that you can do. Delegate the rest.

– If you don’t have a team, get one. Give up control. Stop being the biggest obstacle that holds your company back. Hire, train, motivate and hold accountable people who are smarter, more efficient and better looking J than you are at tasks you should not be doing. Empower others and let it go.

2. Be Proactive, Not Reactive – Spend 2-3 hours every Sunday planning out every day, hour and minute of your next 2-4 weeks.

– I went to dinner with one of the most successful people I know named Spencer Hays. At dinner, I asked Spencer “how do you manage your time?” He replied “I schedule an appointment with myself every Sunday and I plan out every phone call, every meeting, drive time, logistics, etc. for every minute the next week. That way when Monday comes I don’t have to think about what I should be doing.“

3. Do NOT Over Commit – If something is not on your calendar, don’t do it!

– In the book Crucial Conversations, the authors discuss the importance of learning how to say “no”. This resonated with me because at the time I read that book for the first time I was a habitual over committer. I over committed at work, at home, with my friends. My intentions were to make everyone happy and the result was no one was happy. I created a mini-script that made a major impact in my life. Anytime someone asked me if I could do something instead of giving my normal impulse response to just say “Yes”, I started saying “I don’t know. Let me check my schedule.” Then I pull out my schedule and check and see if I can do what is being requested and then put it in my calendar. These 2 sentences have changed my life. I’m no longer an over committer, and I do not do anything that is not in my calendar!

We all want to get more done in less time. The question is… are you willing to focus on these 3 steps and actually do them?