Getting to this newsletter wayyy later than I had intended today.

My wifi wasn't working properly at the airport so I decided to wait until I sat down for lunch to finalize it.

You'll soon realize ^^^ this is me executing on being "effective," rather than solely striving for efficiency.

If I wanted to be efficient, I would have pressed send hours ago.

Moral of this story...

I believe this topic is way too important and I wanted to take enough time create a valuable piece of info.

And at this moment, I believe I have met the quota of value.

For those new to this list, I wrote about the effective > efficient in June of 2022.

A bit of it went like this...

It today's fast paced world, it is easy to fall into the trap of working hard to get "more" done. Yet, if the "more" does not matter in the first place... there is no reason to even do it!

The book "Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less" by Greg McKeown does a wonderful job of helping with what I am talking about.

I literally read or listen to this book at least once a year, and I highly recommend you add it to your list of must reads.

So what do I mean by effective > efficient ???

First let's look at the dictionary definitions.

Effective: successful in producing a desired or intended result.

Efficient: achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.

Now let me ask you this, what is the point for achieving "maximum productivity" for a desired or intended result you don't even care for?

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Let's go more in depth with this idea.

Efficiency and effectiveness are two critical components of success in any field, but they are often used interchangeably. 

While both are important, being effective is more critical than being efficient over the course of your life.

Why?

Let's look further at what these two words mean.

Efficiency refers to doing things in the most streamlined manner possible, while effectiveness is about doing the right things that will lead to the desired outcome.

In the past I have catered my life towards being "efficient," yet as time goes by, and I reflect on both the wins and losses in my life, I have started to acknowledge the importance of approaching life with a more EFFECTIVE lens. 

And as I have started to look through this new lens, I have picked up a few lessons that I would like to share with you.

- Effectiveness ensures that you achieve your goals

Being efficient is all about doing things faster and with the least effort necessary to get an outcome. Sure, this can be great in certain instances, but right now we are talking about your entire life here.

When it comes to achieving your goals, being EFFECTIVE is more important than being efficient. It is not enough to complete tasks quickly; you need to ensure that you are doing the right things that will help you achieve the objectives that you have defined for yourself.

Whether it takes 2 minutes, 2 days, or 2 years... are you doing the necessary things that must get done to hit your goals? In essence, effectiveness is about focusing on the most important tasks, even if those tasks can be sometimes inefficient.

- Effectiveness can lead to higher quality outcomes

Efficiency is often associated with speed and volume of production. This might mean that at certain times quality is not going to be the top priority. The flip side to this is when effectiveness is the main focus, and achieving the best outcomes possible is the main priority, you are statistically more likely to produce high-quality outcomes that meet the needs of yourself and any other partners/stakeholders involved.

- Effectiveness increases your impact

Effectiveness is about achieving meaningful outcomes that make a real difference in people's lives. To play devil's advocate here, a lot of positive impact has been made by making people's lives more efficient. When I put the two head to head though, I think of the example I am living right now...

4 hours from now I am going to be speaking to 500+ students at Memphis University. If I focused on being efficient, I would have spent minimal time making an "okay" PowerPoint, I'd show up 5 minutes before the talk, I'd zip through the presentation, and I would promptly leave. #efficiency

Would ^^^ this make the largest impact on the students? No.

Instead, I have focused all my energy on asking myself what would make my time most EFFECTIVE for them? And once it is over I will describe to y'all how I did it. :)

- Effectiveness helps you prioritize

Is getting the tasks done the priority? Or is it better to focus on the objectives that ACTUALLY move your needle forward? I think you would agree with me that the latter is most important. Aka focus on effectively prioritizing what needs to get done, who needs to do it, and by when does it need to be done. Prioritization is part of my next lesson learned...

- Effectiveness improves your decision-making skills

When you are focused on being effective, you are more likely to think critically and strategically about the decisions you make. Which means by default you will be better at prioritizing the what/who/when from above.

You will be required to consider the potential outcomes of each decision and choose the ones that will lead to the most positive impact. This newfound focus on better decision making and prioritization will lead to more effectiveness, which in turn will have you on the road to becoming a more effective leader.

- Effectiveness helps you build strong relationships

Being an effective leader / contributor to society means that you must take the needs of others into consideration. And with others needs at the top of your mind, you will be able to solve important problems; thus building strong relationships and a supportive network that will help you achieve your objectives.

At the end of the day, great relationships are built off trust, and trust is built from being EFFECTIVE at caring for others. Nobody goes out of their way to support the "efficient" friend who only cares about themselves and their own needs.

- Effectiveness promotes personal growth

Last, but certainly not least, when you focus on being effective, you are constantly learning and growing.

I saved this one for last because I believe it has an impact on everything I have written above.

When I focus too heavily on "efficiency" I tend to cut corners with my learning and personal growth.

This ultimately leads me to feeling upset with myself for not putting as much time into the things that really matter for me.

However, with the shift to the EFFECTIVENESS lens...

If you are like me...

It will cause you to reflect on your actions and identify areas for improvement.

And you will soon realize that by making subtle improvements to your weak areas, your life become better overall!

If I strived solely for efficiency, I wouldn't even take the time to reflect, and this would hinder my long term success.

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Thoughts on this???

While this was a long write up in favor of effective > efficient...

I know how valuable efficiency is, as well as the fact that I could write a long article arguing for efficiency > effectiveness.

Yet, in this moment I am of the belief that more people could earn themselves a higher quality of life if they focused on being more effective in the most important areas of their life.

Myself included.

#thriveon

CJ

p.s. today I am grateful that I get the chance to make an impact on the students at Memphis. MK and Joe thank you for granting me this opportunity!