MacBook Pro - Early 2011 w/El Capitan 10.11.2 running hot , sluggish and with excessive fan use

I updated to El Capitan, and since then, my MacBook Pro has been running hot, sluggishly, short battery life and with excessive fan use.

I have tried resetting the SMC and PRAM, and have read the forums extensively, and I have isolated the problem to the following.

Contacts

Specifically, when I select "Contacts" for my Google account in Internet Preferences. When I uncheck it, this behaviour stops and my MacBook runs a treat.

Is there a way to sync my Google contacts with Contacts without this behaviour. I have no contacts natively stored in the Contacts application on my computer and use Google Contacts so that they are available on my other apple (and non-apple) devices.

Also, not sure if this is related, but I am unable to change the template in contacts to list the First Name before Last Name in the cards - I have selected first before last in the general tab, and they are listed that way; however, when I open a contact, it is presented Last Name, First Name.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.