The problem with trying to improve things is that you need to be able to measure them. That’s one of the reasons people love productivity and efficiency so much – they are generally easy to measure, but effectiveness – that’s a different matter. You need to know what’s your effectiveness score and only then can you see if you are being effective.
Effectiveness is not how much you have produced or how much you have sold. It is not how quickly you have made things or how efficiently you have delivered a service. It is how far you have moved along the road to the achievement of a predefined objective. Why Effective And Efficient Are Not The Same Thing
If you want to achieve an objective then it is your habits that will move you toward or away from your objective. If your objective is a healthy, happy old age then you can measure the habits that should get you there, exercise, diet, weight, contentment etc. Measuring these habits together with an overall score for effectiveness will help you move closer to your objective.
Many people journal at the end of a day and this is a good place to reflect on your effectiveness score. Even if you don’t write a journal then just having a quick daily assessment is a great idea. It could be as simple as a YES / NO score. Did today move me or my organisation closer to the objective YES or NO? Five minutes reflection on why the answer is YES or why it is NO and ten minutes deciding how to make tomorrow better is all it needs. Effective People Do Today What Makes Them Better Tomorrow
Brendon Burchard CEO of GrowthDay suggests that self assessment of this nature not only is a powerful tool for self development but also helps optimise wellbeing. We all know the difference in our energy levels when we are having an effective day versus one where we seem to be going backwards.
If you want to be a bit more quantitative than a simple YES/NO then score yourself at the end of each day on a scale of 1 to 10 as to how effective today has been and then, most importantly, consider how you will make tomorrow an effective day.
That’s how you discover what’s your effectiveness score. Try it.
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