Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.

This quote, or some variation thereof, has been popping up repeatedly on my social media newsfeeds over the past couple of weeks. Typically I dismiss Twitter quotes on principle, but this one caught my attention. With graduate school and Hall Director training imminently approaching, I find myself reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses I’ve displayed in past leadership and paraprofessional roles, anxious to prove (mostly to myself) that I am ready to take on greater challenges and heightened responsibility. With that being said, I’ve been putting a lot of consideration lately into what changes I will make to better manage my time — a weakness I identified in myself as an undergraduate.

This quote stood out to me because it begged a question I rarely had time to ask myself in the blur of activity that was undergrad. It felt good to be busy, but was my busyness effective? Oftentimes I found myself overwhelmed with obligations, chores and other tasks. My plate was always full, and I was always doing something, but it still felt like I was just barely managing to stay afloat. Worse, I was slowly losing motivation in my major roles and found myself begrudging my responsibilities and the time spent taking care of repetitive, but necessary, day-to-day business. I didn’t feel like I was accomplishing anything meaningful despite my passion and grand visions. At the time, I believed my issue was one of time management. I needed to sleep less, study better, walk faster, something to create more time in the day. If I could just be more disciplined with my time, I could finally catch up on my scary to-do list and be at peace.

But what if the issue wasn’t just how I was doing things, but what I was doing? To think all of this reflection started with a Twitter quote. I did a quick google search and discovered the quote was from a book called The Effective Executive written by a man named Peter F. Drucker. The name was new to me, but apparently he is something like the father of writings on organizational productivity in the information-age. I read a small sample of the book online as well as a number of reviews. Written in the 70’s, it was described as both dated and timeless. I had almost decided on purchasing it when I stumbled across another, similar book.

This time I was on the blog of an established Student Affairs professional I follow on Twitter. Chris Mullen’s blog, Elevate Yourself, contains a wealth of resources for those seeking personal and professional development. In his latest post, he recommends a book by David Allen called Getting Things Done. In typical generation-y fashion, I read the online book sample and a few reviews. Thirty pages in, I bought it.

Getting Things Done touts itself as “a gold mine of insights into strategies for how to have more energy, be more relaxed, and get a lot more accomplished with much less effort”. Sounds promising, right? I definitely have high hopes. In a couple of weeks I will check back to give my thoughts on these “golden strategies” and how I plan to implement them in graduate school. With only two months left before my new beginning, I think this will be a wonderful first step in bringing about the changes I would like to see in myself this year.

Are you in a season of change in your life too? Read Getting Things Done with me and share your thoughts!

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net