A great post on the difference between being efficient and being effective. Too often, many tasks get "done", but they get done in a very slipshod, ineffective manner. Are you doing your best work, or simply checking off to-do items?

Doing fast things or doing things fast?

There's a difference between efficiency and effectiveness, mostly in terms of intent. This was brought home to me recently in a meeting with a business partner.

We discussed several topics that needed the partner's attention. A person in attendance was building a "to do" list for followup after the meeting. One by one she went through and checked off things she felt were "finished". She was obviously very interested in efficiency. However, I felt that many of the items she felt were "complete" were not well thought out or even done well at all. In her mind the work was done and she should celebrate how "fast" she got them done. From my perspective they weren't done at all, and required much more thought and consideration.

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(Via Thinking Faster.)

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