Effectiveness Over Productivity: Rethinking How We Value Work

We live in a world obsessed with productivity. How many tasks did you complete? How many hours did you put in? How much output did you generate?

But here’s the thing: those measures are machine-like. They make sense for factories, algorithms, or spreadsheets. Not for humans.

Humans aren’t productive units. We’re complex, creative, messy, consistently inconsistent, and often brilliant in ways that can’t be plotted neatly on a Gantt chart. Instead of “productivity”, we should be thinking in terms of effectiveness.

Productivity vs Effectiveness

Productivity is about volume — ticking boxes, hitting quotas, cranking out work.

Effectiveness is about impact — did the thing you did matter? Did it move something forward? Did it solve the problem?

The most effective people aren’t necessarily the busiest or those clocking the longest hours. They’re often the ones who see the pattern no one else spotted, who cut through noise with clarity, or who find the elegant fix rather than hammering away at the same issue for days.

Effectiveness respects the fact that people aren’t machines. It allows space for rest, fluctuation, and difference.

Why this matters for neurodivergents

For neurodivergent people (myself included), productivity metrics can feel like quicksand.

ADHD brains often work in bursts, where hours of “nothing” are suddenly followed by a surge of deep focus and creative output.

Autistic brains may hyperfocus on the detail that actually unlocks the whole problem, even if it looks like “not much is happening” from the outside.

AuDHD brains (like mine) live in the tension between those two states — craving structure and certainty, but also bouncing into unpredictable energy spikes. The balancing act can be exhausting, and measuring it against “steady productivity” misses the point entirely. On the productivity scale, that looks erratic. On the effectiveness scale, it looks powerful.

When we measure humans by productivity, we undervalue those spikes of brilliance, those unconventional approaches, those leaps that don’t come in tidy increments. Effectiveness acknowledges the reality: sometimes the best work doesn’t look like work while it’s happening.

A human-first standard

Imagine if workplaces shifted their lens from productivity to effectiveness:

• People would be valued for their insights and outcomes, rather than the hours logged.
• Neurodivergent ways of working — bursts, loops, hyperfocus, tangents — would be seen not as inefficiencies, but as different routes to effectiveness.
• Instead of pushing for “more”, we’d create environments that support people in delivering their best.

Effectiveness respects the fact that people aren’t machines. It allows space for rest, fluctuation, and difference, and recognises that the value of a human contribution isn’t in how fast they type, but in how meaningful their work becomes.

Productivity is about doing things right. Effectiveness is about doing the right things* For people — especially those who are neurodivergent — effectiveness is a more honest measure. It’s time we stopped holding ourselves to machine standards and started recognising what makes us valuable: our ability to be effective, in our own ways.

*This is borrowing from Peter Drucker’s thinking. Learn more about efficiency vs. effectiveness

Effectiveness in Brand Strategy

It’s the same with brands. Too many measure themselves by productivity: how many posts went out this week, how many emails were sent, how many likes they got. But just like with people, those numbers don’t always mean progress.

What matters more is effectiveness. Did that campaign change minds? Did that story connect? Did that partnership open the right doors?

A clear brand strategy helps cut through the noise. It stops the pressure to just do more and instead builds a framework for doing what actually works. It means knowing your audience deeply, staying true to your values, and measuring success by meaningful outcomes — not just busywork metrics.

That’s how brands stay human too. Less hustle, more impact.