There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
Drucker is reminding us that efficiency alone isn’t enough. Many people and organizations fall into the trap of becoming excellent at tasks, systems, or routines that don’t actually matter. You can streamline a process, reduce wasted time, and maximize output—but if the task itself doesn’t serve a meaningful goal, all that efficiency is wasted effort.
For example, imagine a company that spends enormous energy perfecting a reporting system that nobody truly uses to make decisions. The reports might be beautifully formatted and quickly produced, but if they don’t drive action or insight, the entire process is useless. Similarly, on a personal level, someone could become highly efficient at managing their email inbox but never step back to ask if their time might be better spent on higher-value activities.
The deeper lesson is that effectiveness—choosing the right things to do—must come before efficiency—doing things well. Drucker believed that productivity isn’t about getting more things done, but about getting the right things done. Otherwise, we risk wasting our energy polishing distractions while neglecting the work that truly moves us forward.
👉 In other words: doing the wrong thing perfectly is still the wrong thing.
