Efficiency in psychology is: the definition of personal, group activities

It is customary to talk about a successful, active and energetic person, that his activities are effective. The effectiveness of an individual is his or her individual ability to achieve meaningful and significant results and know how to do it. Psychologists believe that a person's personal productivity, his effectiveness depends on a number of factors: character traits, type of temperament, mentality, age, motivation and interest.

The concept of effectiveness in psychology

Efficiency in psychology is the achievement of the maximum result by an individual with minimal effort. In other words, it is the ability of the individual to achieve the set goals with the least loss of resources and time.

To complete the same task, 2 different people need to make different efforts and one of them can do it between business and without much stress, and the other may need not only more time, but also help and preliminary preparation. We can say that efficiency is the ability of an individual, without much swing, to quickly and correctly solve assigned tasks, without spending a lot of his resources.

Personal effectiveness is an excellent indicator of how practical a person is and how effectively they use their potential.

There are 5 main factors or inclinations that affect a person's efficiency, which are given to him at birth:

• physical body - the extent to which it will be healthy and hardy greatly affects the well-being and capabilities of a person;
• mental health - or the state of mind significantly affects the effectiveness of the individual, since the suppressed, depression makes it difficult to be active and easily cope with life difficulties;
• cognitive ability - the ability to think clearly, generate ideas, effectively organize your day and your work activities;
• fortress of spirit - it is in strong-minded people that all the previous qualities are well developed, since only strong people can give up bad habits, develop their body, mind and soul;
• time - the ability to competently manage your most valuable resource largely determines the effectiveness of a person as a whole.

Areas of effectiveness

Efficiency is important in all spheres of human life - business, family life, raising children, communication.

Practical psychology considers efficiency in such areas as:

• communication - the ability to build long-term and lasting relationships;
• negotiation - the ability to build relationships with partners;
• self-organization - the ability to independently organize your day;
• work of the head - how productively he allocates his time and uses human resources;
• individual employee performance - how one person affects the efficiency of the group (team) as a whole;
• team work - how well the work of its members is organized as a whole.

What contributes to efficiency?

Efficiency in psychology is the ability of an individual or a group of people to solve problems promptly, fruitfully and with the least loss and expenditure of resources. It is far from being able to act effectively and quickly solve the assigned tasks. Someone has learned this in his entire life, while someone, on the contrary, has lost this skill over the years.

Improving efficiency is facilitated by:

• the optimal level of motivation - interest in activities (material and moral) perfectly increases the efficiency of any work;
• optimal functional (moral and physical) state - in order to work effectively, it is important for a person to be healthy and have a stable state of mind;
• self-confidence, belief in one's own success, luck - it is important to go forward towards your goal with optimism, with the belief that everything will work out, since a pessimistic attitude significantly reduces efficiency;
• previous experience, lessons learned from it - one should take into account the mistakes of the past and try not to repeat them;
• correct prioritization - wanting to achieve something, you should not be scattered over a thousand different things at the same time, since the final efficiency as a result will be very small;
• the presence of a clear goal and a specific, thoughtful plan to achieve it;
• the ability to choose and adjust their actions during the implementation of projects.

Efficiency and psychological literacy

Psychological literacy is an individual's possession of psychological knowledge and means to the proper extent, which allows him to consciously and reasonably refers to himself and others, to understand and take into account the individual characteristics of other people and, based on this, build relationships with them.

The relationship between the effectiveness of a person and psychological literacy is obvious - a person who has psychological literacy is generally more effective. This is due to the fact that he is able to objectively assess other people, various situations and risks and act beneficially for himself in almost any conditions.

Sometimes it can be an unscrupulous activity, when, wanting to be effective for himself, a person “goes over his head” in order to achieve his goals - deceives, betrays, manipulates. From the point of view of morality, this is not good and can even be punished by the law, but specifically in this case, the psychological knowledge of the individual was more than enough to effectively achieve the desired result, but what the consequences will be for himself and other people is already different question.

It also happens that a person can be effective without psychological literacy, as well as having her to be completely ineffective, not being able to practically apply her knowledge in the field psychology.

Efficiency without literacy

Immediate performance may not be justified in terms of long-term performance. For example, when the boss yelled at a subordinate and got what he wanted from him, he did not take into account that in may have problems in the future - the person will get angry, want to take revenge, set him up or at the wrong time quit. This is rash efficiency, when the psychological impact on the employee as a person was directed only at one-time suppression of his will and the achievement of a quick result.

Literacy without efficiency

In this case, a person can perfectly know how to behave, understand all the subtleties of psychology, but at the same time cannot apply this knowledge in practice. This can be compared to a well-written text, which by itself, without deeply embedded meaning in it, will not become a great work.

The main difference between an effective person and an ineffective one

Efficiency in psychology is a person's high productivity in all spheres of his life.

As a rule, effective people:

• assiduous and patient;
• are distinguished by persistence;
• resourceful and adventurous;
• flexible.

Such individuals know exactly what they want, are always collected and well motivated. The main difference between an effective individual and an ineffective one is his ability to manage time. An effective person is very clearly aware that time is the most important and very limited resource that cannot be wasted. Therefore, he plans his affairs very carefully, understands the importance of prioritization and spends the resulting free time with benefit.

For example, getting anywhere by public transport, he is likely to read a book, listen to headphone courses or to solve some important matters (by telephone, planning something in diary).

He will allow himself to spend this time on sleep only if his body really needs it at the moment. An ineffective person usually sees this time as an opportunity to take a nap, listen to music, or just relax and look out the window.

Examples of effectiveness

Efficiency is the result of the self-organization of life in such a way that it completely suits a person. Usually, the effectiveness of an individual is associated with her work activity, professional and financial achievements, although, according to psychologists, efficiency is no less important in family life and in communication with friends and relatives.

If we talk about efficiency in work, then we can give the following example. In the case when a woman earns well and can afford to pay for the cleaning of her home, then there is no point in her wasting her time on this.

It would be much wiser to hire a cleaning service or a housekeeper. Yes, she will spend money on hired staff, but if she earns more during this time, then this is definitely effective. The same applies to men who are able to pay for the services of repairmen, and not waste their time on everyday problems.

Another example that affects both the family and the work sphere can be a situation where in the family often suffers from the child and the woman herself or alternately with her husband is forced to leave for sick leave. At the same time, to perform work duties, you have to allocate different time (in the evenings, on weekends), and a significant part of the money earned by one of the parents is spent on medicines for the child.

This situation is ineffective, since all parties suffer - the child is constantly sick, labor activity parents somehow sags in some way due to forced passes, the financial situation of the family as a whole worsens.

To solve this problem, parents can choose any of the effective solutions:

• if the profession allows, then one of the parents can switch to a remote mode of work;
• if possible, turn to grandmothers for help;
• one of the parents can temporarily leave work (if the salary of the other will cover all the necessary payments);
• consider hiring a nanny.

Any of these options will help stabilize the situation until the child grows up and stops getting sick so often and makes the family's life easier and the parents' activities more effective.

How to be efficient and not waste your time?

Effective individuals have a number of similar habits:

• they go deep into details;
• know how to distinguish the main and the secondary;
• very persistent;
• are responsible for any business;
• proactive;
• are optimistic;
• always trying to do more than planned.
• know how to correctly plan their time;
• have a number of good habits that help them find time for both rest and work.

In order to become more effective, you need to develop these habits and learn how to independently plan your day.

Rules and guidelines

The main rule, which is an axiom, is the need to learn how to correctly and efficiently allocate time. For this, it is important to be able to realistically assess the events occurring during the day and to imagine how many hours or minutes a particular action takes.

The most common problem with disorganized and ineffective people is that they underestimate how much time is actually wasted on various empty activities throughout the day. This is especially true in the modern world, when digital gadgets and the Internet take up all their free time.

Often, a person thinks that he only reads the news feed for a couple of minutes after lunch, and then returns to important matters, and then is surprised to find that the working day is already coming to an end. This should not be the case, and an effective person always understands this and allocates strictly limited time for this kind of leisure (before bedtime, on the way to work).

Other important tips to improve efficiency are:

• satisfying important physiological needs - sometimes people ignore breakfast, believing that they can do without it or are lazy to get up early, and as a result, the feeling of hunger prevents them from working effectively. The same applies to sleep and other basic needs, which, if dissatisfied, will interfere with working with full dedication;
• organizing little things - before a working day or an important meeting, it is better to prepare and think things over in advance (clothes, office supplies, important papers). If you do not do this, then in the hustle and bustle you can forget something, dress untidy, which will give self-doubt and reduce efficiency;
• fight obsessive thoughts - very often some problem can occupy the head so much that a person is not up to work. However, it is worth fighting with this, since these obsessive thoughts become a serious obstacle to achieving the goal and reduce efficiency;
• it is necessary to leave the comfort zone, to deal with fears - conservation interferes with the manifestation of efficiency and, over time, lowers it, therefore, it is necessary to strive to develop, visit various trainings, courses, conferences, exchange experiences with people, as it helps to recharge your energy and increase your own efficiency.

 Organization system

A well-built, intelligent system of organizing one's own life allows an individual:

• better organize your labor activity;
• perform work with less labor costs;
• minimize the number of errors that occur;
• avoid haste and stressful situations;
• enjoy your work;
• achieve better results.

The organization system of an effective person should include such blocks as:

• setting goals and objectives;
• planning specific actions to achieve these goals, time and resource costs;
• implementation and adoption of important decisions (organization of your own work process, daily routine);
• self-control.

Consequences of low efficiency

If a person (especially by a certain age) has not learned how to work effectively and organize his life, then he may face a number of difficulties such as:

• decreased performance;
• dissatisfaction with yourself;
• inability to rationally spend time resources;
• financial problems;
• inability to achieve what you want;
• difficulties with self-organization, composure, punctuality;
• loss of attractiveness as an employee for the employer;
• low competitiveness in the labor market;
• conflicts with family, relatives.

According to psychologists, the low efficiency of a person harms, first of all, to himself (even if he does not think so), and the environment also suffers. An ineffective, unnecessary employee may cause problems for his colleagues, due to of irresponsible behavior, the boss has the right to deprive the bonus, due to which, as a result, financially the family will suffer. All this leads to conflicts, stress and even the emergence of bad habits in the individual.

Unwillingness to work on oneself and one's low efficiency often leads to the development of such a scenario. Many people have periods of decreased activity due to depression, unpleasant life circumstances, but you should always look for ways out of these situations, do not dwell on them and strive to grow and develop so that your own inefficiency does not lead to dead end.

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