- Don't work too hard
- Learn to say no
- Learn to accept help
- Down with perfectionism!
Why does someone work hard, without straightening their back, and remain at the same level of income, while others, with less effort, make a successful career and earn good money? It's not a matter of luck or having large starting capital - people with equal opportunities can achieve different results. It depends on how you approach the distribution of time, priorities and your own strength. To increase your productivity, you just need to give up a few unnecessary things.
The main resource of every businessman is time, and it is limited. There cannot be 36 hours in a day, and 8 days in a week. One person cannot work more than 168 hours a week, even if he stops sleeping, but he can involve other people in his project by investing in their time. And then it will double, triple and as many times as necessary. But why don’t huge companies always achieve the results that tiny companies with a staff of a dozen people can boast of? Instagram has just over a dozen employees and was acquired by Facebook for a billion dollars. What's the secret? Of course, luck played a role in this, but the main key to success is efficiency.
There is no need to work until exhaustion - it is better to work wisely, cutting off what is unnecessary and accepting only what is beneficial. It’s not just the fact that you work that is important, productivity and results are important. The first rule of productivity is to wisely distribute your own resources, and in the case of any person, this is time and energy. You must learn to get the maximum result at the least cost of both. To increase personal effectiveness, you need to throw out just seven wrong principles of approach to work from your life.
7 ways to increase personal effectiveness
Don't work too hard
In the first quarter of the twentieth century, automobile magnate Henry Ford established an eight-hour working day in his factories to replace the ten-hour one, and a five-day working day to replace the six-day workday. It was a kind of experiment designed to show that workers' productivity decreases with each extra hour they work and increases if they have more time to rest.
Imagine an office worker who works 8 hours, and the same, but with a three-hour working day. Remembering that he has to spend eight dull hours in the office, he will begin to diligently put off performing his direct duties - drinking tea, checking mail, running for a smoke break. With a three-hour workday, he will know that he will go home very soon and do pleasant things, so he will try to complete the assigned work as quickly as possible. Surprisingly, with a short day he can do even more.
The reason for this is simple - both rest and fatigue tend to “accumulate”. A well-rested person is able to work at an accelerated pace, but an exhausted worker, crawling every day with all his strength to work, works worse and worse every day.
The American military conducted a study which found that when there is a lack of sleep, a person is in the same state that causes alcohol intoxication - he experiences loss of concentration, decreased ability to work, and deprivation of the ability to analyze and make adequate decisions. One lost hour of sleep is equal to drinking a 0.33 liter bottle of beer, and unlike alcohol, the effect of lack of sleep will not go away after a couple of hours, but will last all day. It turns out that night owls who go to bed at 1 am and get up at 6 am come to work “under the weather” and cannot work fully.
In addition, after a sleepless night, a person is more inclined to perceive negativity, he sees the world in black colors, and his feelings and emotions become dull. In general, it is very difficult, and often impossible, to produce a positive result in a negative mood.
70% of people on the planet do not get enough sleep and do not even suspect that one of the answers to the question is very simple - you just need to get enough sleep.
By the way, most brilliant scientists and prominent politicians did not disdain daytime sleep, which allowed them to work more productively. Da Vinci and Napoleon, Thomas Edison and Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kennedy and John Rockefeller all rested during the day and claimed that after a short nap they felt refreshed and ready to continue working.
Learn to say no
You've probably already heard about the Pareto principle. According to him, 80% of the result comes from only 20% of the efforts made and vice versa - the remaining 80% of the efforts are spent on trifles, the remaining 20%. All that remains is to learn to identify these 20% of actions, when performed, the maximum benefit is achieved, and discard those that provide so little. Then it will be possible to focus on the main goal and not be scattered on performing unnecessary and inappropriate tasks.
All you need to do is learn to say “no” what you don't need. The more successful a person is, the more confidently he rejects unpromising proposals, focusing only on the best ones that will bring him the greatest benefit.
But how to distinguish profitable offers from “time wasters”? To do this, build in your head the entire chain of actions that you will have to perform to complete the task. If you see that the task is very difficult and you are not satisfied with the result, feel free to refuse. We agree to do work that is unprofitable for us because we do not know how to refuse. We want to be good in the eyes of others, so we allow them to exploit us.
Value your time and your work, boldly say: “I won’t do this,” and you will see how much time will appear to achieve your main goals.
Learn to accept help
In trying to do everything ourselves, we bring ourselves to a state of extreme fatigue. A leader is not someone who controls every step of his subordinates, and sometimes does everything for them, thinking that they are not able to cope. Smart leader will find people who can work without a supervisor and trust them completely. By giving up the part of the responsibilities that the team can handle without him, he can focus on more important tasks and not get scattered about trifles.
For the same reason, you should not ignore user reviews. Marketers have conducted research and found that customers trust amateur videos with reviews of buyers of goods and services much more than official content posted on the company’s website. Today, successful marketers look to the user community for advice and help.
We can't do everything on our own, so asking for help is not only normal, but necessary. It is important to seek help not only from subordinates, but also from more experienced professionals in cases where you are not able to cope on your own. Don't waste your most important resource - time - on solving problems that are not within your competence. You don't need to be a jack of all trades and study every area of activity related to your job. Don’t delve into something that will not be useful to you soon - turn to experts and save time, it is much more valuable than the money you will spend on their help.
Both friends and relatives help us. It has been proven that people who are unable to concentrate on a task perform it much better if there is another person in the same room with them. At the same time, it is not necessary to control the process or demonstrate support - just being there is enough. Therefore, if you need to do something quickly, invite a friend to sit with you - this is a win-win way.
Down with perfectionism!
It is strange that people who strive to do everything perfectly are less productive at work than the average hard worker. Why is this happening?
- Perfectionists spend too much time on a task, trying to do it as well as possible, redoing and finishing the finished work, bringing it to shine. Of course, their work is of higher quality, but it is better to develop not meticulousness in small things, but the ability to do everything quickly and well the first time.
- They wait for the right moment, but when the ideal time, in their opinion, comes, it turns out that it is too late. Perfectionists expect a complete lack of risk in their event, but the ability to take the right risks is one of the aspects of success. The right moment is right now, when this particular task is in demand. Tomorrow may be too late.
- Perfectionists spend too much time on details, so they often fail to capture the whole picture.
They say that striving for perfection is the enemy of goodness, and it's true. It is enough to do your job in such a way as to be satisfied with the result, and not try to become a god in your field. Who knows, maybe this is how you will reach heights that you never even hoped for.
Don't get bogged down in routine - trust the work to the machines
In any job there are frequently repeated tasks that take a lot of time, and if you do them regularly, you lose some of your productivity. To avoid this, find a way to automate identical tasks as much as possible using special programs and devices. You may initially need to spend time and money purchasing innovations and setting them up, but it will all quickly pay off when you save an hour or two every day by outsourcing your work to the machines.
Today, an entrepreneur is ready to do routine, repetitive tasks manually, but how will he cope when the turnover increases tenfold? Instead of expanding his capabilities, he will get stuck doing small tasks and will not be able to move forward. If you need to buy software, tools or machines to minimize the cost of effort and time, buy them.
If you don’t know what to do, contact a professional and he will tell you a solution. Remember that your main resource is time, and you can always earn money.
No to assumptions, yes to facts
When drawing up an algorithm for executing any task, all your decisions must be supported by data. Let trial and error be left to those who do not value their time. There is a huge amount of information in your field of work that you need to study before starting work. Why reinvent the wheel?
Based on the experience of those who have already walked this path, you will spend much less time than if you work at random, poking at dozens of options for completing one task. Which of these options is correct, you should find out in advance by studying research and expert opinions on the matter.
And further. Everything you do needs to be translated into data so that you can easily repeat your own path if necessary.
Be alone and relax
Being too deeply immersed in work psychologically exhausts a person. Sometimes it helps to put aside what you're doing and walk a little alone.
Harvard researchers conducted a study to determine the benefits of solitude. It turns out that if during some events a person knows that he is experiencing them alone, he remembers everything that happened to him better and more accurately.
Small doses of solitude develop empathy, and young people need them to devote time to study and interesting hobbies. Everyone needs time to themselves, but too much solitude is unhealthy.
Hours and minutes, not filled with endless running, but given to relaxed contemplation of the world, are extremely necessary for our harmonious development. It is at such moments that decisions come naturally. To know, how to increase personal effectiveness, you don’t need to be a genius - just stop, calm down and look into yourself.
Being slaves to your own work, you will not be able to become successful - tedious long hours of work will take away the energy that you should spend on self-knowledge, thoughtful study of the laws of the surrounding reality and the search for the best and shortest path to happiness and success.
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Hello! In this article we will talk about personal effectiveness.
Today you will learn:
- What is personal effectiveness;
- What does it affect?
- How to be truly effective.
What is personal effectiveness
Let's start with the theoretical part. The very concept of personal effectiveness for the average person is understandable, but somewhat vague. Due to the fact that there is no clear definition, problems arise in the methodology, and in general in the field of application. Let's try to define a person's personal effectiveness.
Personal effectiveness – a person’s ability to perform certain tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Based on this definition, it is already possible to identify the main problems that a person faces when performing certain everyday tasks:
- Switching attention;
- Not working at full capacity.
That is, we can say that personal effectiveness implies a clear concentration on performing a certain task at the maximum level. Today, psychologists are increasingly giving priority to issues of personal effectiveness. In a world full of information, it is quite difficult not to drown in such a flow and filter out what you need.
Why is it important to evaluate and improve personal effectiveness?
The effectiveness of one specific person can influence not only the performance of one specific task at work or school, but also the overall pursuit of certain human goals.
Based on personal effectiveness, we can judge not only how quickly you complete the task assigned by your employer, but also how quickly you can climb the career ladder, receive and use new information, and achieve your goals.
Personal effectiveness is responsible for an important parameter – performance. A person with little effectiveness will endlessly trail behind while more successful ones use their potential to complete their tasks. In order to better understand the very meaning of using personal effectiveness, you need to raise the topic of talent and using your potential.
It is a well-known fact that success consists of hard work and talent. Moreover, people put forward different proportions, from 10% talent and 90% labor, to 50/50.
Personal efficiency is an analogue of work using your talent. That is, you use your resources to achieve your goal as quickly as possible, using the minimum possible amount of effort.
This does not mean that the task will be performed poorly; on the contrary, the more efficient a person is, the more efficiently he will complete the work in a short time.
Accordingly, increasing personal efficiency will inevitably lead to the fact that a person will spend much less time on everyday activities.
Example: The employee is entrusted with the task of analyzing competitors in his company's industry. Based on this report, he will need to make his analysis, assess the company’s development prospects and, in general, give his verdict on the advisability of entering the market. An employee will cope with this task from 1 week to 1 month. And the higher its efficiency, the shorter the time it will take to complete this task.
We talk more about the timing of tasks rather than their quality, primarily based on modern realities. The problem of the current job is not to cope with the task at the level - there are almost never problems with this. The main problem is .
Everyone has noticed this phenomenon: for the first 20-30 minutes at work, you, with burning eyes, begin to carry out the tasks assigned to you. Then, the effectiveness drops, the eyes stop burning, and what took 5 minutes gradually takes 10, 15 and 20.
If you look at yourself from the outside at this time, you can notice endless distractions, weakening concentration, switching from one task to another and other truly ineffective things. And this phenomenon is observed everywhere, not only at work, but also at school, when conducting, training, reading, etc.
It is in order to reduce the time it takes to complete one task, thereby increasing your productivity, that you need to train personal efficiency.
Who is recommended to increase personal effectiveness first?
Absolutely every person needs to train personal effectiveness, but some professions require a special approach to this. Let's figure out who needs to take care of themselves first and foremost.
Freelancers. Let's start with them. This is a special category of workers who perform various tasks. This could be the creation of programs, design, accounting, etc.
This category of people is most susceptible to information attack due to constant contact with information. If at work in the office social networks, news sites and other ways to kill time and distract from work are blocked or under surveillance, then when working from home there are no such restrictions.
Often, in order to complete a task that would take a maximum of 15 minutes, the average freelancer spends more than an hour. It is in order to cope with work faster, increase earnings, the number of clients, and at the same time free up time for more interesting things - freelancers need to constantly improve their personal effectiveness.
Businessmen. This category will include everyone who has any kind of money, as well as directors and top managers of large companies. In the realities of the modern economy, businessmen and senior management have a very limited amount of time to solve important problems.
Moreover, they have more responsibilities than ordinary employees. It is in order to find time for everything, and leave a few more hours for life outside of work, that you need to develop your personal effectiveness.
Students. Anyone who learns something can be included in this category. Regardless of whether it is school or a two-month accounting course, using their academic potential to the full is the primary task of these people.
Getting the maximum amount of useful information, filtering it from unnecessary garbage, and making it suitable for use for your own purposes is a task that is influenced by personal effectiveness.
When personal effectiveness is formed
A person’s personal effectiveness is a subjective factor. It begins to form in preschool age, and its peak formation occurs at the age of 19-25, a time when people are just starting to work, using everything they received during their education.
But the whole foundation is acquired at school, when the same multitasking of students manifests itself: they need to do their homework, do what they like, surf on social networks, hang out with friends, complete their parents’ tasks around the house, and so on. It is during this period that priorities are set.
But this does not mean that increasing personal effectiveness is impossible at a later age. It is after 23-25 years that people think about how they can increase their efficiency in order to devote time to their family and leave a little for their hobbies.
That is why it is necessary to improve one’s own effectiveness as early as possible, but even at a later age one cannot say that a person will not be able to change himself and begin to be more efficient.
The basis of personal effectiveness is made up of three factors:
- Setting goals;
- Resource usage;
- Socialization.
Setting goals is the most important factor of all three. In order to work effectively, you need to understand why you are doing it. A well-set goal is the basis of the result. At the same time, it is important to set intermediate goals. The shortest time period for one goal should be 1 day.
Resource usage. Comparing personal effectiveness with the economy is a great fit here. Economics is the science of using a limited amount of resources to satisfy needs. If we draw an analogy with a person, then everyone has their own supply of resources that must be used in order to fulfill their goals.
Socialization. Also quite an important factor. He is responsible for communication and implementation of goals in society. Every day a person inevitably encounters other people, and they also influence the fulfillment of his goals, just like himself.
It is in order to train the skill of achieving goals that you need to learn to build relationships with people and make sure that they help achieve goals in one way or another.
A person who wishes to develop his personal effectiveness must move in these three directions:
- Learn to correctly set your goals;
- Try to use your resources more wisely to achieve them;
- Interact with people to implement your plans.
Methods for increasing personal effectiveness
There are a lot of methods for increasing personal effectiveness, but they all say about the same thing. We have collected for you the 10 most popular ways to increase personal efficiency, and by following at least half of them for several months, you are guaranteed to notice an increase in your performance.
Planning
One of the most important ways to increase efficiency is to plan your day wisely. This is one of the main skills that can increase your performance throughout the day.
Abraham Lincoln was a truly brilliant man who was able to achieve the most ambitious goals only through his personal effectiveness. He worked to the maximum almost always, and this distinguished him from everyone who stood in the way of achieving his goals.
Working according to your goal is the primary area that you will have to work with first. It is best to write down your goals on plain paper - this makes them more tangible. It’s best to carry a goal journal with you and look at it periodically.
But plans for the day are just the tip of the iceberg. Goals should also be set for longer periods. Also, a person should have one goal - a mission that he should align himself with. This is usually a big and ambitious goal that can take almost a lifetime to achieve.
At the same time, drawing up a competent mission is the first step to becoming effective.
It is also advisable to carry a sheet of paper with your main goals and mission with you. It will help answer the question: “Why am I doing this at the moment,” and will also provide additional motivation for work.
Prioritization
Prioritizing is an important skill to learn as soon as you learn how to set your goals. Prioritize – decide which task should be completed first and which task should be completed after. Arranging such a sequence allows you to solve the most important tasks at the beginning of the day using maximum resources, leaving less effort for unimportant ones.
Mark Twain said: “If you eat a frog at the beginning of the day, the rest of the day promises to be wonderful. After all, you have already done all the hardest things.”
That is, you need to complete one large and complex task at once, without putting it off for a long time. After this, everything else will not seem so difficult and you will be able to complete everything without much effort.
Psychologists also share a similar point of view. After completing a difficult task, a person experiences a surge of endorphins - the hormone of joy, and as a result - an increase in the internal supply of resources. That is, after a difficult task, you will happily take on something less difficult. At the same time, the most enjoyable task should be left for the end. Striving for it will also increase your performance.
Prioritization allows you to choose the biggest and meanest frog, then the slightly smaller frog, and so on.
Concentration of attention
One of the most complex methods that allows you to accelerate personal effectiveness to the maximum.
Concentration – the ability to focus on something specific. That is, when completing a task, you are not distracted by extraneous things, completely devote yourself to the work and complete it much faster.
The problem of concentration today is one of the most pressing issues that psychologists attach importance to.
Some statistics:
- The average length of time a child concentrates on one thing is 7 minutes. For an adult, this figure can increase to 40 minutes.
- After 40 minutes of the same type of work, no matter how creative it is, a loss of concentration and a decline in performance occurs. This has a negative impact on personal effectiveness.
Today there are several methods for improving concentration, but the principle is the same: you need to periodically take breaks and, after long periods of doing the same thing, change your field of activity. One of the oldest but most effective methods of maintaining concentration is the Pomodoro method.
The essence of the method is that you need to engage in one type of activity for 25 minutes and after that take a 5-minute rest. After you have done this Pomodoro cycle 4 times, you need to change the activity, even if the work was not completed. And after 1-2 cycles, return to it and finish the job.
There are many other methods that you can learn about online.
Gradually giving up gadgets at work
This follows from the previous paragraph. Mobile phones and tablets negatively affect concentration. They force a person to constantly be distracted by unnecessary information. Gadgets at work should only be used for communication.
Limiting time spent on social networks
Social networks are an ideal tool for reducing personal effectiveness. They take up a huge amount of time without bringing anything in return. In order to make good use of your personal and work time, you will need to limit yourself as much as possible in terms of social networks.
Spend as little time as possible on VKontakte or Odnoklassniki, and you will notice that you have much more opportunities to do what you really like.
Monitoring your well-being
Poor health is one of the reasons why a person cannot use his maximum potential. During illness, a person will be practically useless at work, since he will not be able to perform everyday tasks as quickly and efficiently as he did before.
Therefore, it should be remembered that sometimes it is much better to spend 1-2 days to finally recover than to work while sick for 1-2 weeks, thereby reducing your effectiveness.
It also doesn't hurt to relax well before starting work. A hot bath can be a great option for this. For lovers of oriental arts, meditation can be a real salvation. During it, the human body rests at an accelerated rate, and literally after 20 minutes of meditation, you will feel a real surge of strength.
Entering Flow State
Flow is the name of a rather interesting psychological state of a person, which is characterized by peak performance. In such a state, a person is able to give his maximum, or even go beyond his own limits.
In order to enter the flow, you can use internal or external stimulants. Internal stimulants include everything that concerns a person’s personal motivation. External stimulants include everything that one way or another can make a person calm down and tune in to the desired mood.
Suitable for this:
- Suitable premises;
- Hot bath;
- Meditation.
With internal stimulants, things are a little more complicated. They are individual for each person, but they are similar in one thing - they cause a positive charge of emotions, which allows you to focus on one thing for a long time. They also relate to internal motivation. Just learn about your motivational levers, and you can easily influence yourself and enter a state of flow.
Know how to rest
This is one of the most important skills that most people have lost. As they say, in most dictionaries, rest is a change in activity. Therefore, you cannot relax by simply lying on the sofa. You need to do something different that uses your other muscles and abilities.
Changing the type of activity is something that you should learn in a short time. If you work with your hands, play chess, poker, force your brain to think. If your work involves mental work, everything is done exactly the opposite - you need to rest, taxing the body physically, without giving it much time to think.
There is a common misconception that people who work a lot on the computer can relax by surfing social networks. But this is far from true. Time spent at the computer negatively affects the eye muscles, as well as the brain, which is forced to filter huge flows of information.
Stop overworking
This point relates to health, but it should be highlighted separately. Each person must clearly understand his limit - the amount of work performed, after which he will harm his body.
We know that the capabilities of the human body are quite large, and it is not uncommon to go beyond one’s own limits, especially when it comes to urgent and important work. But the consequences of such cases are not positive.
In order to competently refuse overtime, you just need to experimentally find out your redistribution - that state when nothing works out anymore, work goes 2-3 times slower, and physical fatigue simply throws you out of balance. And next time, when you reach a similar amount of work, you need to slow down and put it aside for a while, after resting.
Learn to delegate authority
This applies to a greater extent to employees in management positions. Most bosses, especially old-school bosses, try to do most of the company's work alone. And that's wrong. After all, a manager who is busy at an enterprise becomes a worker, but a worker who makes a decision will not become a manager.
That is why it is better to create a clear hierarchical structure, with freedom of choice for each link - to transfer part of the powers that rest with you to the rest, lower working links. This will allow you to relieve yourself and increase the efficiency of each individual link and employee.
The personal effectiveness of a leader is what the entire company rests on. The more efficiently its management team works, the more management decisions can be made, and the better the economic situation of the enterprise will be.
These are fairly simple methods that are known to almost every person. But their implementation may require a significant amount of time. To make the most of them, you need to make these methods your habits.
Laziness and fear of change as obstacles to success
Laziness is the proverbial engine of progress. In fact, this is one of the main brakes that prevents a person from moving on. Along with it comes fear. And for the most part, it is the fear of change.
A person is afraid that in a new environment he will lose stability. And stability for most modern people is one of the main aspects of a successful life.
At the same time, if laziness is something that can and should be fought against, and every person understands this, then the fear of change is almost insurmountable alone.
A great way to combat laziness is to develop the habits of successful people. One of the most important methods that you should follow in life is to watch what successful people do and bring it into your life.
Another popular excuse is age.
We will not focus special attention on this, we will just give a few examples of successful people who realized their ideas at a fairly advanced age:
- Suze Orman is one of the most famous American writers. She worked as a waitress until she was 30. Success came only after 40;
- Harrison Ford is a fairly famous director. Until the age of 30 he worked as a carpenter;
- JK Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter books. At 31, she was still living on welfare;
- Ray Kroc is the current owner of the McDonald's chain. Until the age of 52 he worked as a traveling salesman;
- Henry Ford - no need to explain who he is. Only at the age of 40 did he manage to launch his first automobile plant.
And there are hundreds and thousands of such examples around the world. That very figure - 30 years, after which a person becomes so difficult to climb, according to statistics remains just a number. It's never too late to start moving forward.
Of course, age makes people’s brains less pliable, information becomes more difficult to assimilate, and new skills are acquired with great difficulty. True, there is one thing. This will be typical for those who simply stopped developing after graduating from school/institute.
If a person pays attention to his life, studies new information, learns about new issues that interest him, then with 100% probability his brain will work no worse than in school until he is 50-70 years old.
It is no coincidence that we touched on the issue of success. After all, the majority of readers who opened this article expect that increasing personal effectiveness will lead them to success.
And in most cases, the criteria for success are: financial well-being, good health and family. It is personal effectiveness that is responsible for a person’s path to success. The more effectively you use your internal resources, the greater your chances of being among truly successful people.
Personal effectiveness and self-education
Here we need to touch on the issue of education and self-education. Let's start with the fact that many people in their lives have thought more than once about personal effectiveness, although they called it by different words.
They read quite a lot on the Internet and bought various books on the topic of how to become rich, famous and successful. And a fairly vivid illustration of all such literature will be the work of Evgeny Gordeev - “how to make a million.” The book consists of 200 pages, 100 of which are taken up by the endless repetition of the word “work”, and the remaining 100 are lined out according to the plan. This is the most truthful book about how to become a successful and rich person.
That is, you need to understand once that there is no such magic pill that will suddenly make you successful and rich. You need to develop, and one of the main directions is to maximize your own effectiveness. From childhood, people are surrounded by useless knowledge without being taught the most important thing - how to set goals, use their own resources and achieve them. That is why the first thing you must learn if you want success is to use your own resources.
Personal effectiveness and comfort zone
The title of another book speaks about how to deal with your comfort zone – “Get Out of Your Comfort Zone. Change your life. 21 methods for increasing personal effectiveness" from Brian Tracy. In order to increase your personal effectiveness, you will need to get out of your comfort zone and into the real world as early as possible.
A person cannot achieve the maximum if he remains stagnant. Of course, your comfort zone is what makes you truly calm and even happy. At the same time, you are marking time and not achieving more.
Successful people never remained in their comfort zone, they endlessly moved forward. A striking example is the founder of the Virgin brand, Richard Branson. A person who has chosen 7 types of activities for his company and continues to expand his business.
Of course, leaving your comfort zone comes with challenges. First of all, it is the fear of failure. The second obstacle is laziness. Third, the wrong environment. All three of these factors negatively affect personal effectiveness, preventing you from using your full potential. It is in order to do your best, set ambitious goals and achieve them, you need to use methods to increase efficiency, implement them in your life and increase your performance to the maximum.
Personal effectiveness in the company
From the personal effectiveness of an individual, let's move on to an entire company or enterprise.
The effectiveness of company employees is no longer a question of psychology, but of literacy. That is why a good leader must work in several areas at once - study applied psychology (methods of influencing people) and know the basics of management. This combination will allow you to competently manage people and push them in the right direction.
The methodology for improving employee effectiveness is not very different from the personal effectiveness of an individual. At the same time, it will be necessary to build a competent system that will allow you to reward effective workers and somehow influence those who do not work to their maximum.
Motivational systems can be completely different - from monetary (which is not effective enough) to ideological (the most effective).
Let's consider two extremes: ideological motivation. You can motivate with money for successful completion of work, or for exceeding the plan. But there is a significant drawback - for some workers, money is not the main motivation, and perhaps they do not go to work because of it.
Ideological motivation is the ability to inspire your employees in such a way that they are imbued with the idea of the company and independently come to the conclusion: they need to work to the maximum to help their employer achieve its goals. This is a rather complex, but interesting method that minimizes the cost of monetary rewards, but increases the efficiency of workers.
But it is almost impossible to find two such methods of motivation in their pure form. Therefore, employers have to combine several approaches: giving bonuses to particularly distinguished employees, and declaring their high-profile goals at general meetings.
A small life hack for businessmen: a competent mission statement is a great way to motivate employees. The larger, more interesting and “whiter” the company’s mission is, the more employees are willing to believe in it and give it their all.
In addition to the mission, a great way to motivate staff is to lead by example. The story of top manager Lee Iacocca deserves attention in this regard. This top manager took it upon himself to pull Chrysler out of the crisis. And to show all employees that he is part of the team, he set himself a salary of $1 per annum.
These are, of course, extremes, and this method has long been popular and is already somewhat hackneyed. But the main principle is clear: if you want to inspire your people to do their best, show them how to do it.
Conclusion
Personal efficiency is a person’s ability to complete the tasks assigned to him as efficiently as possible and in a short time. Personal effectiveness is the basis of success in life, without which the average person will never be able to climb the social ladder.
The psychology of personal effectiveness in the 21st century is such that a person has to protect himself from excessive flows of useless information. That is why a decrease in personal effectiveness should be associated with distractions and the creation of incorrect goals.
Methods for increasing personal effectiveness are quite simple: they all, to one degree or another, include concentration on a specific task, prioritization, and a balance between workload and overwork.
You need to increase your personal effectiveness by developing certain habits, the acquisition of which will have a positive impact on your performance and will bring positive results both in life and in your career.
The performance indicators of employees at the enterprise are what you should pay special attention to. The performance of each employee to the maximum is the main task of management personnel.
In 1915, Albert Einstein presented his brilliant and revolutionary theory of relativity. For the three years preceding this, he devoted himself entirely to the creation of this theory, without being distracted by anything else.
I'm not advocating that you spend three years creating one project, but this method of focusing is really effective.
This was a short excursion into the past, and now let’s turn to modern realities: today the trend of “doing less” has become quite popular. As the name suggests, this area covers techniques that can help you achieve greater results with less effort.
1. Pareto's law, or the 20/80 principle
In general terms, this principle is formulated as follows: 20% of efforts give 80% of the result, and the remaining 80% of efforts give only 20% of the result. The 20/80 Law applies to almost all areas of life. For example, according to this law, 20% of criminals commit 80% of crimes.
If you know how to use Pareto's law properly, it will help you not only in your professional life, but also in your everyday life. This is a handy little trick that can help predict the outcome. For example, if you are a sociable person, then you most likely have many friends. Think about which of these people will come to your aid in a difficult situation. There will probably be few of them, just something around that notorious 20%. It is worth taking note of this and trying to maintain communication with these 20%, instead of wasting time on virtual friends.
How it works
According to Pareto's law, you should do all unimportant tasks when your productivity is low. For example, many people, as soon as they come to work in the morning, cannot immediately get involved in the work process. They need to chat with colleagues, have a cup of coffee, or do something else that will help them get into the mood for work.
Only in this case will they be able to work productively. It is important to prioritize work tasks. Try to complete important tasks at a time of day when your performance will be at a high level.
2. Three important tasks
Many people make a to-do list; this allows them to make their work process more organized. Of course, in the 21st century we have already moved away from writing down upcoming tasks on paper; for this we have smartphones and computers.
I suggest you follow one simple rule: Every morning, take five minutes to write down the three most important tasks for the day. And then focus all your efforts on completing that short list.
This is a great alternative to those endlessly long task lists that we usually like to make. Who are we kidding, because even a week is not enough for them, let alone one day. Focus on these three main tasks, and if you get them done ahead of schedule, you can move on to something else.
This simple yet powerful habit can really improve your productivity.
3. Do Less Philosophy
The philosophy of “Do less” is very popular in modern realities. Different authors propose different approaches. For example, Mark Lesser wrote the book Achieving More by Doing Less, based on Zen Buddhism.
His manifesto to “do less” begins by refuting the claim that reducing workload makes employees lazy and negatively impacts their productivity. When we complete fewer tasks, we can enjoy our accomplishments.
Mark Lesser recommends taking a few minutes during your workday to meditate. This will even out your breathing, you will come to your senses, get rid of stress and be able to better concentrate on the task at hand.
Don't forget about setting priorities. Complete important tasks first and then move on to low priority ones. Do not overload yourself with too many tasks: it is better to do less, but with high quality and with pleasure, than more, but without enthusiasm.
4. Pomodoro technique
The tomato technique was proposed by Francesco Cirillo. The technique is called the tomato technique because its author originally used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer to measure time.
The technique is based on the principle of working for 25 minutes on a specific task without a break, but after that, be sure to take a break.
How it works
- Look at your task list and select the highest priority tasks from it.
- Then set a timer for 25 minutes and start working without distractions until you hear the timer beep. Each 25-minute period of time is called a "pomodoro".
- After this, take a five-minute break and start the timer again.
- After four pomodoros (that is, every two hours), take a longer break of 15–20 minutes.
- If your task takes more than five pomodoros, it can be divided into several parts.
This technique helps you work on higher priority tasks, improves attention and helps you concentrate better.
5. The Myth of Multitasking
Multitasking doesn't make us more productive; that's a myth. In fact, when we focus on many tasks at once, it has a negative impact on our productivity and concentration.
No matter how good you are at multitasking, your productivity will be much less than if you decided to focus on one task from start to finish.
David Meyer, professor at Michigan State University
Effectively performing multiple tasks simultaneously is only possible in some special cases. Let's say when you do something automatically, like walking and talking at the same time. Walking is an automatic activity; it does not require you to concentrate on it. This is well illustrated by a well-known parable:
One day, an ant met a centipede on a forest path, which ran cheerfully and serenely towards it. The ant asked the centipede: “How do you rearrange all your 40 legs so deftly? How do you manage to move so easily and quickly?” The centipede thought for a minute and... could no longer budge!
If you want to complete your tasks more productively, it is better to focus on one task, complete it from start to finish, and only then move on to others.
6. Information diet
These days, overloading your brain with information is as easy as getting heatstroke in the Sahara Desert. And even the symptoms are similar: sleep disturbance, distracted attention and slow reaction. Our brain is overloaded with information noise. In the modern world, people are constantly looking for news, although it is already everywhere around us.
In this case, Timothy Ferris, author of the book “How to Work Four Hours a Week, Without Being Stuck in the Office, Live Anywhere, and Get Rich,” advises people to “go on an information diet.” Think about it, do all the emails, blogs, newspapers and magazines you read really matter to you? Do you really need to spend so much time on social media and TV?
Try to receive as little information as possible that is completely unnecessary for you for at least a week and see how this affects your productivity.
7. Live according to a schedule
Ask any successful person when he or she wakes up, and you'll likely hear that that person is an early riser. This is quite easy: there are not many distractions in the first half of the day, so we can focus on priority matters.
Remember that there is a time to rest and a time to work. Draw clear boundaries between one and the other. Start by stopping what you are doing as soon as you feel you need to rest.
It is better to live with a plan than without it.
Parkinson's law states that “work fills the time allotted for it.” This means that if you, for example, decide that you will write a report for the week, you will spend the entire week writing it. Parkinson's law especially applies to things that we don't like and that we have no desire to do. Many of us tend to stretch things out as much as possible. But if you put each task within a strict framework, it will allow you to deal with things much more efficiently. When you have deadlines, you try to get everything done on time, so this is a great motivation.
Increasing the efficiency of enterprise personnel is currently acquiring particular importance in the world. Working in a modern progressive society dictates new rules:
- determine the qualification level of personnel,
- knowledge and skills of workers,
- searching for ways to improve staff efficiency.
Modern researchers of this issue are looking for new approaches, for example, new organizational forms of employee activity, calculating the labor participation coefficient. In modern market conditions, the management apparatus of any enterprise for effective personnel selection must take into account not only the professional qualities of future employees, but also the level of emotional stability. Labor as a phenomenon is directly related to the intensive development of production, as well as to the use of automated systems, information and computer technologies. This significantly changes its basic functional content. Therefore, the professional and qualification composition of workers is changing radically. Of great importance is the long-term analysis of human resources, which includes labor productivity per unit of time or the amount of working time spent on the production of a unit of output, and the effective use of human resources in general. By effectively increasing the productivity of personnel at an enterprise, it is possible to exceed plans for projects. To repeat this result, it must be rewarded with a bonus.
Ways to increase effective staff productivity
Often, companies achieve prosperity of a particular business structure through the efficiency of their personnel. Business expansion usually leads to an increase in the number of employees. It is necessary to list the main ways to possibly increase the efficiency of the staff. Among them:
- control and maintenance of labor discipline,
- high-quality management and recording of results for the work performed by each employee,
- possible correction of deficiencies,
- diagnostics and correction of the emotional atmosphere in the team as a whole and specifically for each employee.
- control of workers’ attendance at the workplace (at the beginning of the working day),
- control of employee working time (its rational use),
- labor-intensive payroll calculation based on hours worked,
- identification of malicious violators of labor discipline,
- documentation of violations of labor discipline,
- control over the implementation of work schedules.
A competent, qualified HR specialist plays a key role in this situation. This position should be in any enterprise.
Methods that increase staff efficiencya
You should pay attention to and adopt the following proven methods for increasing staff efficiency: - mandatory entry of job descriptions,
- implementation of an automated working time recording system,
- employee certifications,
- conducting regular personnel monitoring,
- employee motivation system,
- incentive system for disciplined employees (employee salaries must correspond to their efficiency for the enterprise),
- strict accounting of time absent from the workplace even for a good reason when calculating wages,
- punishment for violators of labor discipline,
- development and implementation of a transparent system of work control schedules.
- guarantee (preservation) of a job;
- opportunity for professional growth at the enterprise;
- the employee’s income, that is, wages that must completely suit the employee;
- incentive system (bonuses, excursions, free trips, benefits, discounts, gifts).
Good organization of employees on old equipment produces better results than new equipment with poor organization.
We all understand that in order to achieve maximum results, your actions must be effective, and even better, highly effective. But here the question arises: what is high efficiency, how to achieve it, and is it possible to do it yourself. Let's say there that high efficiency is a skill that you can develop and improve. There are people who naturally have this ability, but their percentage is tiny. Basically, all highly effective employees and managers develop this quality in themselves from year to year.
The ability to see a goal, confidently go towards it, overcome all difficulties and obstacles, work beyond expectations, perform to the maximum and even more - all these are components of success and high efficiency.
Today we will talk about seven basic skills that are inherent in any effector” (a person with high efficiency). If you take all the recommendations into account and develop similar skills in yourself, we assure you that in less than half a year your results will increase several times, you will achieve your goals faster, with less effort and greater satisfaction.
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Improving Efficiency, Skill One: Be Proactive
This is the first, but most important skill. The future depends on how effectively you can assimilate it and learn to apply it in life. What does it consist of?
Don’t be afraid to take the initiative, take the situation into your own hands, and lead some business. Act as much as possible, rather than wait until you are involved somewhere. There is a saying: “Until the thunder strikes, a man will not cross himself.” Don't wait for thunderclaps and critical situations, because then you will need to quickly react to the situation at hand, and your choice will become limited.
Don’t be afraid to take on responsibilities, and if you do, work hard to fulfill them to the fullest.
Improving efficiency, second skill: vision of the goal
How can you improve your work efficiency? We know only one truly effective way - vision of the final goal. If you know why everything is being done, you understand the point of lack of sleep, a 12-14 hour working day and constant fatigue, then you will overcome everything without any problems, you will work for the 14th hour no less effectively than the first. Knowing that you are not doing everything in vain is the best motivation that can work wonders.
Be sure to have a goal. You shouldn’t even start anything if you don’t understand why it’s being done.
Improving Efficiency Habit Three: Prioritize
You can increase your efficiency very simply; all you need to do is be able to correctly prioritize your work. Do important and important things in the morning, things that can affect the future, progress towards a global goal. Try to delegate small tasks to someone else, give them to other performers or companies. You should deal only with the most important and serious matters. Try to forget the phrase “urgent and urgent”, and do more of the “important and most important”.
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Improving Efficiency, Habit Four: Acquire Partners
You should not be dependent on other people, think and be afraid that tomorrow this person will change his mind and that’s it, your stability will disappear. Build partnerships on mutually beneficial, interdependent terms. For both you and your partner, such cooperation should be profitable, profitable and suitable in all respects.
Improving Effectiveness Habit Five: Understand
The ability to understand, listen, and understand is a very necessary skill that will help improve the efficiency of you as a leader and the entire team as a whole.
You must learn to listen to someone else's opinion, understand what prompted the person to draw such conclusions, to come to such a conclusion. There are leaders who consider themselves smarter than everyone else and hand out hasty “diagnoses” to everyone who thinks differently. This is not right, you won’t get far with this approach.
The desire to be listened to and understood is one of the main ones for any person. Therefore, let everyone know that you have taken note of their thoughts and will try to make the most of it. Believe me, even among the stupidest thoughts, one can slip through that can change a lot.
Increasing efficiency, sixth skill: know how to integrate
You can increase the efficiency of any work and achieve maximum results by bringing people together. If you see that your team is not coping with a certain task, then invite a specialist in this field, or give a certain amount of work to another team. Even if the profit is not so big, perhaps it will interfere with your own ambitions, but in the end everyone will win, work efficiency will increase, and the goal will be achieved faster.
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Improving Efficiency, Habit Seven: Enhance Professionalism
Many business trainers, successful entrepreneurs, politicians and businessmen emphasize the need to constantly learn, improve your knowledge, skills, and abilities. As soon as you tell yourself: “That’s it, I’ve lived for a long time, I know everything, I’ve seen everything,” then you can give up, you’ve lost this race and are rapidly sliding down. Never stop, never stop learning.
, the 87-year-old founder of the IKEA chain, once said in an interview: “I’m 87 years old, but I’m still hungry for knowledge, new discoveries and interesting projects.”
Develop yourself in four different directions:
1. Physical. Play sports, maintain good condition and appearance of your body, eat healthy, give up alcohol, smoking and other drugs that kill you from the inside for your money.
2. Spiritual. Practice meditation, watch motivational films, read, listen to calm, soothing music.
3. Intellectual. Don't stop learning. Absorb new knowledge, learn languages, develop logic, comprehend sciences unknown to you.
4. Social-emotional. Maintain good relationships with friends, family and people close to you.
To increase the effectiveness of any work, you must be as developed as possible in various directions, constantly learn, and be in harmony with yourself and the world around you.
