Productivity vs. Efficiency: How Jira Can Help You Maintain Both
If there's one thing littering the internet, it's productivity tips. They encompass different people in different work environments in whatever field they work in. Not just on a professional level, but on a personal level too. Naturally, it's all very well and good, and we can all benefit from the large majority of them. However, there are times when you might confuse efficiency with productivity. In fact, in some cases, what you might be hoping for is efficiency, rather than productivity. So what is the difference between them, and how can you include both in your Jira workflow? That's what we're here to clarify, as well as recommending some of our apps as well as others to help you make that happen.
Efficiency vs. Productivity
What is efficiency?
The formal definition of efficiency is the amount of effort and resources people put into their work to bring out the highest caliber of results, with little or no waste. Waste, in this case, refers to time, resources, work, and materials. Basically, it is about making the most of what you have and producing the most favorable results. In a way, it is as if your company was put on survival mode and had to do whatever was needed to come out on top.
What is productivity?
On the other hand, productivity is the amount of work that is done in a specific period of time. It is primarily concerned with producing the most output with the resources available within an allotted time-frame. Basically, it's about doing as much as you can with the time you have. The main goal of which, is to produce things in abundance without wasting time.
What is the difference?
The biggest difference between both efficiency and productivity is that, in a way, one is more involved with the quality of the outcome, while the other is more involved with the quantity. With efficiency, you want to produce the best quality with what's available by making the most of everything. With productivity, you want to produce the most in a certain amount of time, caring more about the quantity. If you think about it, efficiency, is dealing with what you already have, making it a responsive approach. Productivity, on the other hand, is more of a take-action kind of approach.
There's a lot of debate on which is better. Some go for productivity, after all, what's the point of learning to do with less when our main focus is to produce more? But as a counterpoint, what is the point of doing more when it isn't either good or relevant and ends up being a waste of time? In an ideal world, you would be able to be both efficient and productive. Only, if you have to make a choice, might as well go for efficient, as it produces the best results.
How Jira can help you maintain both?
While we can't promise that an ideal world is within your reach, we can show you how to use Jira to at least work on both at the same time. The truth of the matter is, it's not an either/or situation. For an organization to fully function well, it needs to apply both tactics.
1. Incorporate the use of mobile plugins specifically for Jira
One way to work better, is by making Jira more reachable no matter what device you're using it on. Whether it's on a desktop, or a mobile device. To help you with that, you can use Mobile for Jira. This app is designed to help you view and interact with your Jira issues using your mobile device. In the same way, it can help your team collaborate better on the go.
2. Utilize your Jira notifications for a better workflow
Did you know you can do a lot with your Jira notifications? You don't need to head to your emails every time you receive an update to find out what the status of specific tasks is it. Instead, you can make use of in-app Jira notifications and directly interact with Jira issues without even leaving the page you're working on. This can be easily done with In-App & Desktop Notifications for Jira.
3. Learn where you're losing time with better time management
Being able to determine where time is lost, is important, both for your team's efficiency and productivity levels. One thing to help you do that, is use a Jira integration, such as Time in Status for Jira Cloud. This app will help you manage your team better by figuring out the kinks on how long tasks usually take and why things are taking a longer time than they should to get done.
4. Use data by creating Jira reports
Learning from the data your company is churning out is every day, is vital for you to be able to work better, and produce more. To do that properly, you will need some informative charts that deliver the data in the most ideal way possible for you to make the most sense out of. This can be customized and filtered to inform you what you need to do. Something you can easily do with the help of an integration with an app such as Custom Charts for Jira.
5. Spread out your customer support system omnichannel Support
Spreading your team thin to work on support on separate channels can be counter-productive. However, if you integrate each support channel to Jira, your agents will be able to work more efficiently in one place as all the separate messages will be turned into Jira tickets. For that, we can recommend, WhatsApp Connector for Jira, Twitter Connector for Jira, and Telegram to Jira Connector. Not only that, you can also turn email inquiries into Jira tickets, no matter the mail service provider you use. In this case, we would recommend Google to Jira - GTJ, as well as Microsoft Outlook for Jira.
Conclusion
Both efficiency and productivity play an important role in helping a company grow and make the most out of its resources, personnel and valuable time. In any vital decision a company has to make, it needs to consider these two elements side by side as well as together to ensure the best outcome possible. Yes, the importance of one over the other can ultimately depend on the type of company you work in. But no matter what, you can't gain success without incorporating them in their business plans and work-dealings.
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Aliaa ElNashar
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