Work Smarter, Not Harder: Three Short Tips About Success and Productivity

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Have you ever heard the phrase “work smarter, not harder”? One day I was hanging out at a coffee shop and I overheard a young man talking to his older companions (potentially his relatives) about his potential business plans. From real estate, to online businesses, to vending machines, that man had a lot of decent business ideas.

Unfortunately, it felt like he was vastly underestimating the financial risks involved and it also seems like he has very little business knowledge and experience. That’s a recipe for disaster. I still hope he succeeds at whatever he plans to do though.

In any case, while he was talking to his older companions I heard him repeat the words “work smart” and “not work hard”, and how nobody gets rich being an employee (there IS a way if you know how to save and invest properly). It’s thanks to him that I got something I want to write about this week.

What does it mean to “work smarter” and not harder? We have three tips for you here!

Work Smarter, Not Harder: Three Short Tips About Success and Productivity

1. Find better ways to do things

In any office or work environment, there’s usually an established way to do things. For example, if you want to send a document to another department, you might need to prepare the document, print it out, and walk over to that department to hand it over to the secretary where it will stay there for days or weeks. You can do that… or you can send your document through email and get it delivered faster.

But what if you need to make changes? Do you need to resend a newer copy that they’d need to download again? What if the executives’ inboxes get clogged with so many versions and updates? Then why not try creating an online cloud document that you can edit when necessary, and send the link so they can check out the latest version at any time? That will get things done much faster.

That’s an example of one major lesson I learned in The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Jack Canfield. Whatever you’re doing right now, there’s likely a way to do it better. We have to develop the habit of continuously improving ourselves, our businesses/careers, and our skills a little bit at a time. Once we do that, we’d be surprised at how far we’ll have gone months and years from now.

2. Don’t focus on effort, focus on the VALUE of our results

If there’s one seemingly unfair idea about wealth and success that stuck with me, it’s that we don’t earn based on our efforts. We earn based on our RESULTS. The VALUE of what we do. Just imagine a salesperson walking for five hours under the sun to make just one small ten dollar sale, versus another salesperson who studied potential clients, made a couple dozen calls, and sold a thousand dollars worth of the same kind of merchandise in just two hours. One spent so much effort but earned so little, the other spent a little SMART effort but earned a lot.

Another example is how a laborer can spend hours and hours at work and earn very little… but an expert surgeon, programmer, or lawyer can spend a few hours on one case and earn a lot. Again, it’s not effort but the results.

If we want to improve our success rate in life, then we have to stop putting so much focus on how hard or how much time we spend working and focus more on the VALUE of our results. It won’t be easy and the things we need to do won’t be so obvious, but it’ll be worth it if we DO manage to find the things we can improve on and actually manage to do them.

3. Concentrate on the things that matter most

There’s something life called the “Pareto principle” or the 80/20 rule. It’s an observation about how approximately 80% of all effects come from 20% of all causes. You’ll see this almost everywhere in life if you look closely. Just think of how there’s so many roads and alleys in your city, but most cars are on the main highways and popular streets. Think of how there are hundreds or thousands of shops, stores, restaurants and boutiques in your city, but most people only go to the most famous shopping malls and restaurants. I also remember how in a certain company, when I checked the sales data, over 80% of their gross profit came from the top spenders who make up only 20% of their entire customer base.

That’s how the Pareto principle works. In your life, approximately 80% of your best (and worst) results—your income, relationships, health, and more—come from the most important 20% of what you do. The other 80% of all your actions like procrastinating, browsing Facebook, watching TV, gossiping with coworkers, and more are all mostly useless. 

If you want to improve the results you get in life, become more productive, and improve your chances of success in the things you want to accomplish, then you have to identify the crucial 20%. Learn to do MORE of them and improve the QUALITY of how you do them.

In summary, if you want to improve your chances of success at whatever you want to do, you have to learn to work smarter instead of just working harder. Similar to how improper form in weightlifting has less benefits and can potentially injure you if you do too much, being smart about how you do things can give you much better results. 

All in all, learn to look for better ways to do things, focus more on results instead of how much time and effort you spend (or potentially waste), and concentrate your efforts on the things that matter most.

I hope you enjoyed learning this lesson! If you have any more ideas on what it means to work smart instead of working hard, just tell us in the comments section below!