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Efficiency is doing things right: It’s not just important to use our time wisely to become productive. It is most important to ensure that we are spending our time on the right things. This quote by Peter Drucker beautifully talks about the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. It is so easy to get caught up in the idea of being productive with time. However, effectiveness asks us to step out of this biased thinking. It forces us to look at the big picture and ask whether we are compromising effectiveness for the sake of efficiency.

Efficiency is doing things right, Effectiveness is doing the right things

Between the two, I’d argue that effectiveness is more important than efficiency. The gains we get from being efficient are marginal. In other words, if we are focused on the wrong thing, even if we are most efficient, we will lose because all this energy is wasted. Instead, if we focus on the right thing and are not the most efficient, it still gives us better return for our time.

Most of what this quote says is common sense. We should focus on the right thing and do the right things. Once we sort out what to do, how to do it becomes the secondary concern. Hence, we should focus most of our energies on doing the right things i.e. being effective. But it becomes hard with time because we get involved in the details of the work that we do. We don’t stop or pause enough to ask whether what we are doing still makes sense. With time, priorities, processes and thoughts change. We must constantly keep asking the question of whether what do is the right thing. Efficiency is an easier problem to solve. But if we are focused on being effective, efficiency will find a way.

Efficiency is doing things right, Effectiveness is doing the right things

Peter Drucker