CHAPTER 6EFFECTIVE, YES! EFFICIENT, NO!KEY TO PRIORITY TIME

“Time is the measure of business, as money is of wares.”

—FRANCIS BACON

Time management values effectiveness over efficiency. Efficiency refers to how well you do something. Effectiveness testing determines whether you should be doing it at all! As Peter Drucker, the eminent management counsel, put it: “Better to do the right thing than to do things right.

Say you have a list of people you must telephone concerning an upcoming meeting. If you think efficiency, you consider the best time to call, whether their names might be put on automatic-dialing cards, whether the list is accurate and current, and so on. But if you think effectiveness, you ask, “Is calling these people the best use ...

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