Be careful where you put that ruler!

What is efficiency? For sure, there are standard definitions. They do not suit me. Let me reminisce about morning coffee, way back in the days when that coffee was at our office in Mississauga.  I had a compact little routine that made me quite happy and I loved the efficiency of it.

• ·        Arrive, unpack laptop, and turn it on.
• ·        Go to fancy coffee machine and turn it on.
• ·        Log in to laptop
• ·        Make Coffee. While it brews, get out cream from fridge
• ·        Pour cream. 
• ·        Add another coffee shot
• ·        Open outlook
• ·        Put away cream.

Then go back to desk with my fresh, hot coffee. Anyone looking would think it was terribly inefficient. So much walking back and forth. So much wasted movement. However, what interested me at that time was not motion, but time. By doing some activities while others were running parallel, I felt rather… efficient.  However, if energy is what I held as precious  (vs time) then perhaps I would have taken a different approach. 

Efficiency is different depending on what is scarce, or what you are trying to conserve.

Consider another example of what to measure from my quantified life:  This summer I was riding my bicycle through the lovely trails of Brampton. Lo and behold I hit a new best time! I was so excited for this evidence of my improved fitness.  Then my husband reminded me we had just added air to the tires. More air – faster ride. (What a killjoy). 

I had not been faster because of increased strength, or endurance, but because of improved bicycle efficiency. If my goal were to win a race – that would count as an improvement – after all, the measure would be the time. However, since my goal was to improve fitness, then it was not the best measure, at all.

Be careful what you measure and when you call it success. To mix a metaphor - maybe you have that ruler held up to the wrong goal post.