Productivity measures how much you do or produce within a given timeframe. Efficiency, on the other hand, is about being productive with less effort.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Why it's better to be efficient rather than productive
Productivity measures how much you do or produce within a given timeframe. Efficiency, on the other hand, is about being productive with less effort.
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So this reminds me of working smarter instead of harder. In today's society, efficiency is more valued than productivity because no one wants to pay three or more people to do a job that one individual can do if they worked smarter. Technological inventions and newer software are being developed and released every day to help people perform better in their day to day jobs. Theater is a collaborative industry and it would seem that being efficient in the process of producing a play is not beneficial to the industry but that it is not true. There are ways in which efficiency has taken over productivity in different areas in the industry. For example, stage managers in the past had to type up reports and put these reports in the mailboxes of individuals working on the production but the presence of emails has helped in making the job more efficient. There are pros and cons to being efficient and being productive and to be completely honest, I would choose efficiency over productivity anytime.
I think this article brings up a very good point that should be addressed more often in school, and in the school of drama especially. To vent about the school of drama just briefly, I think we are piled with so much work that when it comes to the point where people in power can say “as long as you can get to ‘B-Level’ you’re fine,” it’s obvious that something is wrong. One shouldn’t have to be packed with so much work that they settle for a B. They should be given an efficient amount of time to do their best and get A’s on the projects that they are assigned. At this point, it feels as though the curriculum in the School of Drama is based around the productivity of students and not the efficiency of students. Now, aside from that mini-vent, I believe that the article and what it suggests is very true overall. The efficiency of something is more important than the productivity of a person, because the efficiency is often in regards to the quality of something rather than productivity, which tends to attribute time to the amount of work done. I think in any line of work this article is viable and good to understand overall.
The amount of time you spend on a project to reach your goals with it is a really important statistic to be able to evaluate the practices of your workflow and the mastery of the material you are working with. We should pivot a bit to focus on the efficient part more than the productive part. Efficiency implies that there one is able to reach their goal to the best of their ability, to do their best work, and to be able to do it in the smallest timespan possible that still accommodates how precise and accurate they want the final product. You can be productive and working for an incredible amount of time, and just have walked yourself in another circle around your goal. A lot of times, when I am focused on productivity, I feel like the end result contains a lot of irrelevant information, fluff, and honestly me just filling space with nonsense because I am scared to really dive in to a task. When my goal is efficiency, my objectives are clear, my method is concise, and I am able to move forward a lot quicker.
Efficiency should always trump productivity. Quality should always trump quantity. I think that goes without saying. I completely understand that there are some cases or certain environments where these statements cannot apply at all. This is a very random example, but today Popeyes brought back their chicken sandwich. During its first release, they really blew up. Lines were in the streets for people waiting to get their chicken sandwiches. I'm sure they want to create a good quality sandwich in every single one they will be making today, but at some point, things are going to get so hectic that they are going to have to turn to a model where quantity and productivity are on top because they just need to be producing sandwiches. This applies to other areas where things don't blow up or go bad if the quality or efficiency declines in the name of producing work. With that being said, in the theatre efficiency and quality should always be number one. Each step is so dependent on the the previous one being done efficiently that you have to take the extra time to iron out the smallest details, sometimes at the cost of productivity, time-wise. I think at times it is worth it to see if we can find ways to increase productivity without losing the efficiency because we are working against time, but a lot of times things have to take as long as they take because they have to take as long as they take. You can't shortcut certain things. Which then leads to scheduling...
The argument this article makes is perfectly logical and I think applicable in many situations, but I’m curious how the author uses this tips they give in their own writing life. Being a writer can’t really be rushed by efficiency, it tends to be more menial tasks that have the ability to be consolidated and made efficient, like making a jig or writing a script, but there isn’t any easy way of making the creative process more efficient and I don’t think artists would want to if they could, because it would lead to less creativity. The author also made a point that having some sort of efficiency in your life that saves five minutes a day will save you 100 minutes per month, which seems like a sizable amount, but is really only an hour and a half. I definitely agree with this articles suggestions, but I’m not sure it gave me any specific ideas of how to change my own habits.
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