Is Your Quest for Efficiency Draining You?

You want to be more productive and work smarter, but if you equate productivity with efficiency, you might be well on the way to Burnout City. Being productive is not about cramming more work into each hour, or working more hours. In fact, Americans work plenty, especially business owners. 

If you feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day or you’re overwhelmed as a business owner, efficiency probably won’t help you feel like you’re more in control – but productivity might.

What is productivity?

While different people have different definitions, the most basic one compares output to input. The more output you get for the input, the more productive you are. It’s not always about time management, but about producing the results you want with less effort and overwhelm.

There are some basic principles to productivity, but there are also some aspects that may change depending on the person. For example, a basic principle is optimizing the four and a half hours of hard cognitive work that humans get in one day.

For some people (morning larks or lions, depending on the sleep chronotype model you use), the best time to do cognitively demanding work is in the early morning, right when you wake up. Rising at 4:30 am may make sense for you. 

But that doesn't work for other sleep chronotypes, whether you’re a bear/third bird or wolf/night owl. That will only work if you naturally get up early in the morning. Also, I would like to emphasize that waking early has nothing to do with character. Rising before your natural wake time makes you tired, not virtuous.

Some people want to have absolute quiet when they’re working and focused on what they’re doing. They might wear headphones or earbuds/plus to keep the silence. Other people prefer to have music on in the background. 

Whichever you choose, the important thing is to be able to focus and bring all your attention to one task at a time. That’s a basic principle of being effective/productive. The details of what you need for that time may differ from someone else’s, which is why you need to know what works best for you (and not someone else.)

What is the goal of productivity?

If you think about it in terms of effectiveness, you see that productivity is what gets you the result you want: for the day/week/month and for your business. Effectiveness doesn’t necessarily mean being efficient, especially when it comes to knowledge work. That’s because knowledge work relies on the brain, and efficiency isn’t always the best way for the brain to operate.

For example, it may be efficient to quickly move from whatever task is first on your plate to the next one. But if one or more of those tasks doesn’t move your business forward, working quickly on them isn’t actually effective because it doesn’t get you closer to your goal.

In the moment, it’s often efficient to do a necessary task yourself, even if you have someone on your staff who can take care of it. But it’s not particularly effective, when someone else can do the task and free up time for you to concentrate on something that only you as the business owner can do. 

We know from physics that two objects cannot exist in the same place at once, so you can’t simultaneously work the other person’s task efficiently and do your own. Maybe they need some more training, or maybe it will just take them longer until they get the hang of it. 

Efficient? Maybe not, strictly speaking. But you having time to do the work that only you can do? Very effective.

Being effective gives you the results you want in the timeframe you want. In theory, you could take forever to do each item that you thought of and is on your to-do list. But when you prioritize by how important the task is (not the urgency!), and you’re able to complete it quickly because you brought your full attention to it, you’re improving the output you get from your time and energy.

What are the key drivers that improve productivity in the workplace?

You need the right systems, the right priorities, and people doing the right thing at the right time. Some of your team might have a learning curve, but once the repetitive task or the one that really doesn’t need to be done by the business owner is off your plate, you can concentrate on the priorities. The things that actually move your business forward, which aren’t always the things on your to-do list or what’s next “on your plate”. 

Systems help you automate what can be automated, and make clear what steps are next on each project, who is responsible for each step and the timeline. Policies and procedures, yes, they take time up front. 

So, not efficient in the moment. Having them in place requires you to think about what the right systems are and who does what at each stage. Knowing who does what makes everyone more effective. When you document your policies and procedures, it’s much easier for new staff members to ascend the learning curve quickly, because they know what to do.

Yes, the systems can take time to set up and document. That’s why efficiency doesn’t really help your business, because sometimes (especially when you have a deadline) it’s faster for you to do things. However, in the long run, you’re more effective when you take the time to set up systems and document them in the beginning. 

Your business is dependent on you being in control of your own time and energy. 

• When you let emails distract your attention from what you’re doing, someone else is in control. 

• If you let appointments or team members encroach on the focus time you’ve set aside, they’re the ones driving the agenda, not you. 

• When you allow anyone in your office at any time (rather than setting aside specific dates/times), you give up control to whoever walks in.

Being able to think at a high level and make good decisions requires your brain to be fresh, recharged, and filled with plenty of oxygen-rich blood (that you get from exercise). Making sure your brain gets all these goodies in turn requires you to spend downtime doing things you enjoy and being with the people you love. Having a life outside your business paradoxically makes your business grow and thrive.

Recap (tl;dr):

Instead of efficiency, think effectiveness when it comes to productivity. Working effectively with your brain is how you’ll get the results you want in your business without burning out.

Need another perspective on your business to see what’s working and what isn’t so you can be more effective? Schedule your free consultation here.

Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash.