In today’s world, there is always so much to do ALL the time, and it’s important to feel some sort of relief. It’s a wonder how many solopreneuers make money and keep up with the day to day tasks. It definitely is an admirable skill for those that are going it alone and still making things happen. In many cases, we don’t have a choice as we are trying to continue to grow and build regardless of individual circumstances. Of course, ultimately we create teams to assist and increase our efficiency.
It occurred to me is there a need to increase productivity to be more efficient, or is it increasing efficiency and becoming more productive? What is the difference?
“Productivity” is the “amount” of products produced in a certain amount of time. Those products could be physical products or virtual – such as writing articles or blogs. Basically the count of items completed. If you are begin working as a team with someone one, efficiency is gained as the productivity items are completed and more is accomplished.
“Efficiency” is based on the “energy” spent to complete the production of the products or service as well as timing. Create a process. For example, if there is a process or system created for writing and posting on a blog, each time the task is needed and completed utilizing the established process, it will be completed quicker and efficiently. Efficiency will definitely reduce stress and ensure accuracy – once the process is defined. You know you have achieved efficiency when you are getting more done in a shorter period of time…less energy-better results.
My personal philosopy – Meet every challenge – Increase efficiency!
It is not always easy to do, I continuously strive to be more efficient. It does get easier, the more I stick to a plan/process. Just one example that I utilize to bring efficiency to my daily routine/business.
- Gmail. I love Gmail. I use that email address for just about everything that I sign up for online primarily because I know that I can be efficient with it.
- I create filters for emails that I receive and send that are important and I want to be able to find them quickly.
- In some cases, I create specific filters like ”Marketing”. This one filter will contain several different people that I like to keep up with.
- I also add a color to that filter so it stands out. It’s similar to creating a rule in Outlook.
- Once the filter is built, click on that filter on the left, click on ”archive” (see the top drop down). By archiving, it removes the emails out of your Inbox and keeps them in the filter/folder that you have now created.
- Periodically when I want to clean out my inbox, I go through all of them and just archive…It significantly reduces items sitting in my Inbox and allows me a process of reviewing my emails according to their importance. It also allows me to see what really is junk and no longer needs to be in my email…so I typically will “unsubscribe” to those.
I continuously strive to be more efficient for myself and my clients to save time for both of us. I am always open to learning new things, please share your ideas and suggestions in the comment box below…I’d love to converse about that-it is truly one of my favorite topics! Let’s help each other be efficient.
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