Jason Dunn

JonnoB

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Jonathan (JonnoB)
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -Edmund Burke

mookie123

Rirath

Someone tell this guy to download a Fish Screensaver or something and chill out.

Jimmy Dodd

Efficiency is getting things done in a timely manner.

Effectiveness is getting the right things done in a timely manner.

The difference is at the heart of prioritization in the Franklin Covey system.

Jimmy Dodd

In computing and in life, multi-tasking is a positive thing as long as the time-slice allocated to each task in its turn is significantly greater than the time required to change tasks (overhead). The point at which the processor has so many tasks assigned to it that the time slices have become so short that the only thing accomplished is the overhead is called thrashing. In effect, the memory for accomplishing a task is moved into place only to be moved out again to make room for the next task.

Applied to humans, this often manifests itself as a day in which you spend the whole day laying out the tools needed for accomplishing a task (find a file, open an application, drag out your notes) only to receive a email/phone call telling you to work on something else instead. Once you prepare for the new task you again receive a phone call/email, and so on.

The reason multi-tasking can be effective on the computer is that the speed of a computer is such that much of its time is spent waiting on the operator (or waiting on slow operations, such as network access, disk access, etc.). If I'm writing a Word document my PC is spending a lot of time waiting in between my keystrokes. During this time it can check for email updates, recalculate a spreadsheet in the background, and run a number of other tasks without my notice.

Learning to multi-task without thrashing is a fine art for humans which my PDA helps immensely. Instead of reading every email as it arrives at my desk I let them automatically sync to my PDA. Then while standing over the department printer waiting for a print job to complete or while waiting on a meeting to begin I can check them. While standing in checkout line at the mall I can note purchases from the previous store in MS Money.

The art of multi-tasking for humans lies not in doing a lot of things at once, it is in learning to fill up dead time with things that are important to you. Microsoft's new ad campaign with it's tag line "what would you do if you had five minutes" (or something like that) is aimed directly at this.

mookie123

You are assigning new meaning to a well established words just to fit your idea.
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American Herritage dictionary:

Effective.
Dictionary:
1. adjective: 1.Having an intended or expected effect
2. producing or design to produce the desired impression or response

Efficient:
2.Acting or producing effectively with a minimum of waste, expense, or unnecessary effort.

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-Even if things are getting done in timely manner, it is NOT necessarily efficient, it has to be correctly done (ie. effectively) in timely manner (if time is the resourced measured)

-Something can be effective, even at very slow rate or even untimely manner, as long as the task is accomplished as intended. If time is not necessarily the only criteria, than it's effective.

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Note:
-call me beligerent, but franklin Covey is bunch of hacks, the company doesn't even make profit for gawd sake, so much for being efficient company. (Interesting to note how they obfuscate meanings of words as a heart of their business.)

-Efficiency can be measured mathematically. so if you don't produce data, you are only making weak anecdotal musing. That's why algorithmic pathways are often analyzed statistically to measured it's efficiency without resorting to anecdotes.

-Using word's meaning correctly will create effective use of language, and prevent vague meanings floating arounds which makes reader confused. (ie. not efficient) so that brighthand article is NOT effective, let alone efficient in conveying ideas. It's just a personal RANT, and pretty uneffective at that too.

Jimmy Dodd

Hardly. My dictionary does not include the word "effectively" in its definition of efficient.

Regardless of your dictionary, the usage of the words is well defined in both the article and in Covey's book. I don't see how that could be construed as trying to confuse a reader by "obfuscating" the meaning of words. Instead, they go out of their way to make sure that the reader knows that in their context the two words, which have a very similar meaning and which people often use interchangeably, have a significant, if subtle, difference. Likewise the difference between something that is urgent and something that is important is thoroughly explained in the context of the text.

Life is full of weak, anecdotal musings. We're talking about personal time management, not industrial engineering here. Most of my day's activities cannot be measured mathematically, maybe your day's activities can.

I also don't see how their making a profit has anything to do with whether or not their methods are effective or efficient. The methods work for me, I don't own stock, and I don't work for F.C. so I couldn't care less about their profitability.

mookie123