Episode 983: Effectiveness Versus Efficiency

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 983 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:08] Scott Brookens: I'm Scott Brookens from Scott brookens.com. I encourage you to find the way to be inspired to start your dream business and find freedom. And one way to do that is to be inspired by this the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.

[00:00:22] Scott Maderer: does it matter if it saves you 30 minutes today? If it's the only time this year, you're going to be doing the task instead, look for the tasks that efficiency leveraged over a long period of time gains you the most. And when you do that, you'll end up being both effective and efficient in your. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts.

[00:00:50] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling [00:01:00] in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:11] and today's episode about investing in others by stewarding your time. I talk with you about effectiveness versus efficiency. I share why all too often, we try to make things as efficient before we really should I also talk about how making sure what to make efficient is more important than just making things.

[00:01:33] As we talk about stewarding your time. Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long, it turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission, we'll come back to support the show.

[00:01:51] Just that quick. If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired [00:02:00] stewardship.com/. Let's talk about effectiveness versus efficiency. The word effective means in terms of time management and productivity, prioritizing, focusing on what is needed to deliver the results you're after and saying no to things that are not in alignment with those goals, where efficiency is the ability to do things quickly.

[00:02:27] And accurately to get a higher output using a smaller investment of time or of resources. And what I've discovered over the years is that a lot of times people, when they get to productivity, when they start asking questions about how to be more productive, they start focusing on efficiency first. They look for ways to automate things.

[00:02:51] They look for ways to outsource things. They look for ways to make things more efficient, to get more done [00:03:00] quicker. And yet the truth is effectiveness is where you should focus first long before you worry about getting officiant, you should figure out whether or not the task is even one that needs to get done.

[00:03:17] Is it actually something that is a task that is worth spending the time and the energy to get more efficient? Or is this a task that I actually should just completely get off my plate? Is it an important task that needs to get done? Is it something that has a priority and moves me towards my bigger goals and gets that.

[00:03:42] Moving or is this something that maybe I've said yes to that in reality, I needed to say no to, is this something that really comes across as a task that is core and in alignment with where I'm trying to [00:04:00] get. All too often, we end up making very efficient tasks that we should never have been doing in the first place.

[00:04:08] They end up being things that waste our time, because it's all well and good to get better at doing something and to do it quicker. But if it's actually something that you shouldn't be doing at all, no matter how quickly you do. But it shouldn't be done. So it's always a waste of some level of time and energy and resources that could be put towards those things that you should be.

[00:04:34] You should actually be focusing on your task and thinking about, is this an important task? Is this an, a task something that should get done first? And then within that task, are there parts of the tasks that are more important than others? Is this a task that should be done? And is this a task that I should be the one doing?

[00:04:58] And once you've [00:05:00] asked that and decided that then you need to look at it and go, okay, is this a task that is worth making efficient? Because here's the truth. If this is a task that you do once a year and it takes you 30 minutes, you may not want to spend a lot of time and energy cutting that time from 30 minutes to 20 minutes, the gain isn't that much.

[00:05:23] It's 10 minutes and the scope of. On the other hand, a task that only takes you five or six minutes to do, but you do it each and every day. If you can cut off a minute of that, that will save you hundreds of minutes across a year. So you actually have to pay attention to not only is it an important task.

[00:05:49] That's the first step, but once you've identified the important task, which of these important task should be made more efficient, which of these are the [00:06:00] ones that leverage my time, even more, which of these are the ones that make me gain back large amounts of. Of course, you can make things efficient by delegating them.

[00:06:15] You can make things efficient by dumping them or getting rid of them, but you can also make things efficient through automation and other tools, or simply getting better at something. You also want to look at the tasks that you're doing and identify, are there steps in this task that I can get rid of?

[00:06:33] Are there things I'm doing that perhaps I don't even actually need to do to achieve the results that I really want? Because oftentimes we end up doing extra steps because that's how we've always done it, as opposed to, because that's the best way to. See, when it comes to effectiveness and efficiency, the truth is all too often, we start focusing on efficiency, [00:07:00] but what we're making efficient, does it really make us more effective because it doesn't move us towards our bigger goals.

[00:07:08] And if that's what you're doing, then you're actually wasting time because by the way, making a task efficient also takes time. And. So make sure that you're spending that time and energy to make efficient, the tasks that help make you effective and the ones that gain you the most time. A longer period of time.

[00:07:33] Doesn't matter if it saves you 30 minutes today, if it's the only time this year, you're going to be doing the task. Instead, look for the tasks that efficiency leveraged over a long period of time gains you the most. And when you do that, you'll end up being both effective and efficient in your goals.

[00:07:54] Thanks.

[00:07:55] thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast [00:08:00] as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting 4 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time.

[00:08:39] Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.