We all have to achieve ‘more and more’ with ‘less and less’.

This is causing stress, exhaustion, burn-out and for many, a strained work-life balance. To break-out of this negative cycle we need to improve our productivity by working smarter not harder.

This sounds sensible and it is something I used to say all the time when I was in the corporate arena.

There is a big ‘but’ however.

No-one really knows how to do it.

Until now!

Here’s how to achieve more with less by working smarter.

The SMARTER equation:

To work smarter means that you should follow this simple formula:

Smarter = Effectiveness * Efficiency * Creativity

This equation is  inspired by the work of management guru Peter Drucker. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker).

He defined effectiveness as ‘doing the right things’ and efficiency as ‘doing things right’. This is a powerful insight.

To work smarter and achieve more in less time with more energy, any manager, business owner, student or coach needs to focus on the few big goals that will make a big difference to their performance (i.e. the ‘what’ they are doing) and make sure they are doing it as efficiently as possible (i.e. the ‘how’).

But in these times I believe we need to go one step further by adding a third dimension.

We need to add creativity and innovation.

Hence to achieve more with less means to work on doing the right things (effectiveness) and doing them right (efficiently) and doing things differently (personal and team creativity).

In a world that is constantly changing we always need to be open to a new possibility, a new solution, process, structure or way of collaborating that will enable us to create more value in less time.

Application:

My suggestion therefore is to do a quick review of your (and your teams) current activities and programs and ask yourself these 3 questions:

1. Are these important in terms of generating big results?

2. Are they being done quickly and simply? To help try using our new Blitz tool; and

3. Is there a different or better way?

You might be surprised at the results.

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