January 4, 2010

Before making my list of writing goals for 2010, I did some serious evaluating last month to try to discover why I had accomplished so much less than I’d hoped in 2009. I had worked harder and longer hours, doing my best to be efficient.

Even so, I wasn’t effective in many areas where I had set goals. I either failed totally or accomplished just a fraction of what I had intended. Why hadn’t I been effective? I was practically the most efficient person I knew!

They Aren’t the Same!

Effectiveness is doing the things that get you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most ecconomical manner possible.

Most of us work hard to be efficient in our lives just to stay on top of ever-lengthening To Do lists. And efficiency is good–when it’s applied to the right things, the important things. It’s absolutely useless if it’s not.

Important vs. Unimportant

How do you decide which tasks are important to moving toward your writing goals? It all depends on what your ultimate goals are. Is your main goal to write books, perhaps even make a living at it? Is your writing goal to land a staff position on a big city newspaper? Do you want to bring your writing skills up several notches in 2010?

Once you know your over-all dreams, then look at your To Do list with a more critical eye. Which things on the list support your goal? Those are the important jobs. Which things–if done later, done quickly, or (gasp!) left undone–wouldn’t affect your goals at all? Those are the unimportant tasks.

Take a Step Back

Sometimes we are so close to our To Do lists that we can’t see the forest for the trees. We don’t see that doing something unimportant really well doesn’t make it important. (I’m an excellent email organizer, for example, with all kinds of folders and tags and categories. I have the most organized unnecessary and unwanted email you ever saw.)

Also, just because a task would require a lot of time to accomplish doesn’t make it important either. (The email query to the editor might take you an hour. Reorganizing your writing closet will take four hours. Only querying will get you that coveted assignment–making it the most important task nine times out of ten.)

Effectiveness Trumps Efficiency

Yes, it’s great to be efficient, but to repeat myself, it’s only helpful when you are being effective. For example, if you want to lose the holiday pounds you added, which supports your goal the best–efficiently organizing your recipe files or going for a power walk?

If you want to finish your first novel, which action supports your goal–tearing articles from your writing magazines to file, or sweating over that first chapter?

Are You Effective–or Just Busy?

You want to make the most of your time available. I don’t know what your “efficient time wasters” are, but you probably do. I’ll be talking more about this in the weeks and months to come as I cast a cold, unrelenting eye on each item on my list–and weed out some activities that look good or that “everyone” says you have to do.

What’s the deciding factor? It’s this: Will it take me closer to my goals in some measurable way? Good! If not, it gets pushed to the bottom of the list. I may get to it later–or never!

6 Comments »

1. 

   Kristi, this really hits home with me. My efforts to be organized and efficient often get in the way of EVERYthing I attempt to accomplish. (And I totally identify with organizing email folders!) I’ve been stuck in a rut of defining my days as “good” when I accomplish many things, whether important or not, and I find myself aiming for quantity instead of quality. But, any satisfaction I get from crossing things off my to-do list disappears the next day when the undone important things are still waiting for me. I’m praying for wisdom to put things in the right perspective this year. Thanks for this encouragement!

   Comment by Selena — January 4, 2010 @ 7:39 pm

2. 

   Selena, we sound like soul sisters. Your description was my life the last few years–aiming for quantity and losing sight of quality. And yes, all sense of accomplishment evaporates when we see the bigger, more important goals going by the wayside. 2010 will be better!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — January 4, 2010 @ 8:06 pm

3. 

   Kristi, thank you for reinforcing one of my New Year’s resolutions–to write. Just to write. Not to do chores, not to piddle and diddle, simply to write. To write!

   Comment by Jane Heitman Healy — January 4, 2010 @ 8:48 pm

4. 

   Jane, hopefully we can reinforce each other! As I sat here writing today (while seeing the dirty dishes and how empty the fridge was), it was hard to keep writing. But I sure feel better when I do! And the world did NOT come to a halt because we had scrambled eggs and biscuits for supper!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — January 5, 2010 @ 12:49 pm

5. 

   This article…..and many others over the past few months…really hits home with me. I need to quit using my time for busy work, and get busy doing some actual writing. Thank you for all of the wonderful ideas and thoughts that you share with us on a regular basis. I don’t take your insights for granted!

   Comment by Audrey McLaughlin — January 5, 2010 @ 7:49 pm

6. 

   Thanks so much, Audrey. I think we’ve *all* bought into the lie that if we’re just busy, we must be being productive and effective. Not!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — January 6, 2010 @ 12:50 pm

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