Select Page

E is for Efficiency

E is for Efficiency
This entry is part 5 of 26 in the series A to Z 2014

How many words does it take? Is it an art or a science?

I always forget who said it, but someone like Winston Churchill said:

I’m sorry I have such a long speech, I didn’t have time to write a short one.

Implying that a shorter speech is harder to write. I suppose under the letter E we could also use:

  • Editing
  • Effectiveness

It’s all more difficult than writing. Writing is just pouring out what comes to your fingers, but then to make it efficient, effective, and to edit, that takes work, thought, patience, and, hmm, maybe something like experience? What to cut? What to leave? What’s working, what’s not? Scrap the whole section or maybe just change the tone? Oh forget it, just leave it as it is, don’t edit, don’t be efficient, just let it be. Uh huh, let’s see how that goes. Although it’s often that the first photo is the best of a group of 10 or a first draft is the strongest, but still, some polishing, another perspective, another glance at it with a fresh mind can’t hurt, right?

Well, yes, it hurts. That’s called work or progress. No pain, no gain? Usually.

I’m self-conscious about making this post about efficiency too long so I’ll stop now. 🙂

How many words does it take to get your point across?

How many words does it take to get your point across?

 

Series Navigation<< D is for DramaF is for Fun >>

6 Comments

  1. Michelle Wallace

    Great presentation!
    I read somewhere that efficiency is intelligent laziness!
    I’ve seen a few posts on efficiency for the E-post.

    Nice to meet you via the A to Z challenge.
    Writer In Transit

    Reply
    • Bradley

      Ooh, thanks. I’m going to go see what others are writing about efficiency!

      Reply
    • Bradley

      This is excellent, “Is it the number of words or choice of words?” Thanks for the comment!

      Reply
  2. Ryshia Kennie

    Efficient post! I notice the most inefficiency in conversation. Rather than getting to the point so many people go on and on… Something I’m guilty of from time to time…to time.

    Reply
    • Bradley

      Good point! I was on a sales call with a colleague who said to me, before we started the call, “Remember, we only have 20 minutes.” During the call at a certain point, he whispered to me, “OK, we have all of the information we need, let’s wrap this up.” I realized he was right and I would have chatted away for another 20 minutes!

      Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.