Skip to main content

Time Management- Efficient or Effective?

My ex-boss, affectionately known as 'bos ayam', has this habit of asking this in her job interview, "What is the difference between Efficient and Effective?"

Anyone in our Corp Development Dept must know how to answer that question, unless you are interested to attend her one hour lecture.

So.. it was kinda nostalgic when I read today's Strait Times and saw this Time Mgt article which, I believe, is inspired by many books my ex-boss also use to teach us.

Rite.. what's the difference?

*taken from Strait Times*

Efficiency means doing things right. Working efficiently is doing things with the least amount of wasted effort.

Effectiveness means doing the right things, doing things that yield results.

So.. which is more important? Which one should I work on first?

Answer is.. 'Effectiveness'.
Focus on effectiveness means you are focusing on the result, rather than being occupied by the process.

Simple example:

If a salesperson is focusing on his efficiency, he will probably be working on how to maximise the number of customers he could serve within certain period of time.
Sounds good.
But.. what is the point of serving many customers if none of them buy? Or even worse, if none of them are satisfied with his service?

Now.. if he were to focus on effectiveness first, he will work on the effective methods or ways to provide a satisfying service and to convince his customers to buy.

Which is better?
Obviously at the end of the day, it's the result that matters.

In managing our time, it's important to, firstly, focus on how to fill our time with activities that yield result, rather than just trying to fit in as many activities as we can in a day.

Just because you think you are doing something all the time doesn't mean you will get anything out of it. Just because you make something, doesn't mean you have made the best out of it.

Hmpfh.. it's a long way of learning for me. ^^

Next one: Eliminating Time Wasters

Comments

wei said…
Heard of 20-80 rules?
80% of your business from 20% of your clients, and the remaining 20%of your business are from 80% of your clients.

Point to learn: focus your time and energy on those 20% of your clients

So bottom line: Take a look at how much time you are spending calling on, servicing, or answering questions from people who don't do business with you, and stop wasting your time :)

-know this fr my brother who is Jack Welch fan
phoenix chix said…
Haha yup2.. it's the Pareto's principle.

gonna continue to that point actually, but dun have the luxury of mind and time to blog another long article ^^

Popular posts from this blog

Yasuko to Kenji

Watched till the 8th episode, and each episode always has its touching moments, as well as silly moments. Not a spectacular drama, but a good one for sure. And the guy is a mangaka... oh no.. the dream that was buried long time ago... Go to mysoju.com if you'd like to watch. Amagasa - Yasuko to Kenji OST, by Tokio soo ka.... Tokio also sang My boss My hero's OST, Sorafune I think i like this band

Good things

Good things happen recently ^^ Not so much for me though lol. Well, my NUS fren got engaged last week. She has been with her boyfriend for quite a while. Both are genius.. congratz2... Then yesterday was the most shocking one... coz I always thought all was just jokes.. congratz to the two FA frens of me. Surely love works in the most unpredictable ways. Of course the previous couple from FA was also shocking to me for different reason haha. Anyway, glad to see them happy. I dunno if Friday's dinner is gonna be good thing but I know that this is really going nowhere. Sigh.. so it seems that we are going nowhere while the others have moved on. Anyway, was having a great FA session last night. Eve shared on how God used her the night before to help cast out demons for her friend. So she was sleeping over her friend's house, they were chatting till almost 3 AM and then the topic became serious and her friend wanted to be set free from the devil spirit inside her. At first Eve was ...

song of the phoenix

Hindarkan aku dari murkaMu ya Allah, sembunyikan aku dari geramMu yang menyala-nyala sesungguhnya dalam kesalahan aku dikandung, dan dalam pelanggaran aku diperanakkan, dan dengan dosa aku bergumul sepanjang hariku tulang-tulangku serasa remuk oleh gentar, dan hatiku sungguh hancur mengingat dukaMu jangan palingkan wajahMu ya Allah, jangan biarkan rohMu yang kudus beranjak dariku siapakah aku ya Tuhan, hingga layak akan belas kasihMu namun itu yang kupinta, kuberanikan meminta, maka dengarlah jeritku ya gunung batuku sekali lagi, ulurkan tangan kanan Mu angkatlah aku dari debu dan abu sekali lagi, hembuskan nafas hidup Mu bangkitkan aku dari jurang maut Hades nyalakan sekali lagi, api kudus Mu yang menghanguskan noda cela ku sampai habis biar sekali lagi bibir ini layak berkata, terpujilah Engkau ya Allah ku yang hidup *dari chapter 'daud dan batsyeba'