Efficiency and effectiveness and two words that mean a lot to me. The technical definition of efficiency is “the ratio of the useful work performed by a machine or in a process to the total energy expended or heat taken in” replace machine with human and mark out “heat taken in” and we have a decent working definition for our purposes here. Effectiveness definition is “the degree to which something is successful in producing a desired result; success.” which is a good definition all on its own.
Why do these two words mean so much to me? Is it because I have engineers minds? Because I have a mind that’s crawling with 1’s and 0’s? No, nothing of that sort. I couldn’t tell you the first thing about engineering and I got through college math by copying the girl next to me. And that was after flunking high school math. Loved history and English but math and science were always elusive to me. But that’s neither here nor there.
No, these two words mean so much to me because of what they do. And what they do is save the most valuable resource that we have. And what is the most valuable resources that we have? The one resource that is non-renewable and is literally draining away second by second? The one reason that you can’t get more of even if you controlled the entire earth?
The most valuable resource of time.
The Importance Of Productivity
We are all given twenty fours hours in a day. Some people will become legends in their fields with those twenty four hours, some will accomplish great and mighty things, some will accomplish happy and fulfilling lives. Not in any single twenty four hour period but the accumulation of them. Meanwhile the majority of people will spend that same time working hard but getting nowhere, wallowing around doing nothing, wasting away with numbing agents, or a whole hell of a lot of things that don’t add up to much.
Why is this? Well truth be told there is no single one reason why this is. I guess if you really wanted to you could boil it down to lack of wisdom or a lack of courage but even that is all conclusive and doesn’t help us much. There are man reasons for this. But one of the big reasons is that though many people work, or at least think they do, they’re not working very productively. If we wanted to boil this down to a single sentence it’d be.
They’re not using their time efficiently and effectively and therefore are wasting it. Not don’t think I’m saying every second of every day has to be spent in work, fun can be efficient and effective as well, but that’s something we get naturally. With work it’s a little harder to grasp the efficiency and effectiveness of what we’re doing. So we end up spinning our wheels but never going anywhere. Meanwhile we get passed up by those that work in a productive manner.
Hence the importance of productivity.
How To Boost Your Productivity With Little To No Effort On Your Part
Now there are systems out there for boosting your productivity, some of them which are very good. However they require a bit of learning and set up. That’s not what I’m doing today. Today I want to show you some things that can add to your productivity with taking little to no effort on your part? Sound too good to be true? Well in this case it’s not. Now granted these things aren’t going to take you from doing nothing to conquering the world but they will give you an edge to your productivity. And over time, small changes become big, AKA the compound effect, which you should look up if you’re not sure what that is.
But let’s get to these “hacks” though calling them that seems to cheapen them. What’s a better word methods? Effective and efficient methods? Whatever, you get what I’m saying. Now the first is one that works if you work from a desk and that is listening to classical music. Let me tell you my own experiment and then you can look up the reams of data on what classical music does to your brain on the search engine of your choice.
I tested writing to different kinds of music to see if it changed at all. I did this for a week with each music type, well almost. I tried no music and it was awful. So I tried meditation type music, “atmospheric” music, meaning stuff that matched with whatever piece I was writing, and then classical music. I have the same general workload every day and would test to see which time I got done.
The classical music saved me roughly 30 minutes of work each day. Meaning I’d finish about a half and hour earlier than usual. The meditation came in second with about five minutes saved and the atmospheric last. I’m not saying this was scientific or conclusive proof by any means but it’s certainly something worth trying out and there are plenty of studies out there on the effects of classical music on the brain.
The next is eating right, but wait, different than you think. I mean yes we should all eat right and stay hydrated and all that but I’m being more specific here. There are two changes I made that both had to do with micronutrients as opposed to macronutrients and have had a big impact on how I feel and my productivity. I should note these changes were made at different times than what I was doing above.
I added three whole eggs, raw, but you do what works for you, every night before bed. Just cracked them and placed them in a cup and drank them Rocky style. Not saying you have to or should do them raw, that’s just what I did. I did that and included liver in my diet twice a week. Not as far as micronutrients go I don’t think you can beat liver and eggs. They’re both superfoods in the true sense of the world.
They’re like multivitamins except they actual work. And since then I’ve noticed a couple things. One is that it takes a whole longer to gas out when sparring, another is that it takes me less time to “warm up” when I’m writing, another is that it shaved another ten minutes off my quitting time. Now granted there are always tons of factors swirling around in one’s life but this one seemed to make a consistent difference and continues to do so.
So focus on those micronutrients and see how it affects you.
Simple But Powerful
Not a lot to go over here, pretty basic, simple stuff. But also very effective. Maybe try turning on some classical music when you work and see how you do. There are so many composers out there, maybe start with a mix and note songs that you like then go and listen to more of that composers work. Classical music is much more varied than we give it credit for, find your favorites while expanding your repertoire. Just have it playing in the background or in your headphones. At the very least it may give you a mood boost for the day.
The second is look to your diet, but not in the calorie or macro focus that so many of us have fallen into but also with a mind for the micronutrients as well. And the best way to do this is eggs and liver, nature’s superfoods, nature’s multivitamins. If you want more information on liver here’s a basic primer on why it’s so good. Eggs are great as well. With the two of them you’ll at the very least be a healthier person and who knows how much more you’ll get done.
