What are meant by “Hard Work” and “Smart Work”? Hard work is a work activity that is carried out seriously without knowing the word tired, never give up and will not stop working before the target or objectives are achieved. People who work too hard are also often referred to as workaholics. People who work hard will be very enthusiastic and try as much as possible to achieve good and maximum results like what they are targeting. Meanwhile, smart work is work activity that focuses on the things that are most important or significant. Because smart work is more focused on things that are more important, this smart work has the principle, “how can we work with far better results,
The effort given when working smart may not be as big as what we give when working hard, but if smart work can produce greater results or the same results as business that is not as hard work, then smart work can be said to be far more efficient.
Hard Work Strategy vs Smart Work Strategy
Most leaders, managers or bosses indeed prefer employees who work hard . However, believe it or not, we can get far more and maximum results by working smart! In order to succeed in delivering better and more results, we must first be able to distinguish these two terms.
Distinguishing is not just from the definition, but we also need to understand it from how hard work and smart work function and how the strategies offered by each of these terms. According to the money us news dot com website, the work strategies offered by hard work and smart work can be explained as follows.
How to Work Hard?
It seems the term “hard work” is very well known throughout the world. When we see someone who works diligently, resilient even to stay up late at night in the office and bring office tasks home to do. Plus the time on weekends that are still filled with endless work activities, we can refer to all the series of work activities as HARD WORK. As famous as this hard work concept is, we don’t need to explain it any deeper. This condition also makes leaders, bosses, managers or superiors feel more like employees who work hard.
Unfortunately, working hard is not necessarily able to create more efficient results. Often hard work is just maximizing the amount of time and sweat that we devote to existing work tasks, but hard work does not discuss or cannot predict how efficient we are in completing those work tasks.
For example, I tried my hardest and worked hard to complete two financial statements within two days. However, it turned out that my colleague applied the concept of working smart, so that he could complete the same two financial statements in just 10 hours. What ?! I wonder if my fellow readers would be me, which one would I choose? Work hard or work smart? Now let’s look at the work strategies offered by smart work.
How to work smart?
This smart work strategy will not be the same as a hard work strategy. Expected work targets could be the same, but the way of working, the struggles given, the working time used might be very different.
Smart work always uses less time, no more struggle and a way of working that is simpler than hard work.
For people who have a lot of time, working hard might be a good choice, but what about people who don’t have much free time? Or people who have a target to get a lot of work but the time available is very limited? If conditions like this, then smart work is the best choice.
Moreover, smart work will not make our bodies very weak because the time we give to do work tasks will be less than hard work. In other words, we do not overexert our energy and mind just for the sake of a job that can actually be done faster with better results.
By using time management and productivity strategies, we can get higher quality results and more energy left for other things than drowning ourselves in working hard, and that all comes from work efficiency.
The Essence of Work Efficiency
Now we already know how the work strategies offered by hard work and smart work. We can draw a brief conclusion that the difference between hard work and smart work comes from the work efficiency provided by each of these terms.
So, what is meant by work efficiency? Work efficiency is another term that can describe that the output (results) that we get better, more and maximum with the input (effort) that is given less.
So Which is Better, Hard Work or Smart Work?
We have already discussed how to work hard and work smart, but maybe some of us still feel confused, “Actually it’s better to work hard or work smart, huh?” Many people still think that “hard work is far better than smart work” Why? Because for those who choose this, hard work is considered to have more appeal than smart work. What if we see the results of existing studies? The results of a study conducted by an economist at Stanford University John Pencavel showed that when individuals work more than 50 hours a week, their productivity will decrease. The results of this study indicate that when we work hard, this is like wasting time. The analogy is, we are tired of working hard by devoting more work time, eh our productivity actually decreases , instead of increasing.
How to Work Smart?
After listening to the results of the above research, maybe some of your fellow readers will become even more curious by working smart. Here we provide 3 main tips that we can do to implement smart work.
1. Set 3 Major Objectives Every Day and Focus on It!
People who apply the hard work method argue that there are so many of their jobs, so they must devote more energy and time to complete all the work . However, hard work does not guarantee that we can work more efficiently (as discussed earlier).
Therefore, productivity experts suggest that everyone should set 3 main goals every day and focus on completing these three goals. The concept of these three goals will make our focus and energy more focused, we will not spend time and energy for other work outside of these three focus.
What if we don’t set three main goals? As a result, we will be overwhelmed with so many task lists that we will be confused “which should be prioritized and which can be postponed first?” Unlike the case when we have set three main goals, we will be more directed and more quickly complete the work. When the work is finished faster, we can hold other jobs, so that we get far more output.
2. Avoid Multi-Tasking.
Smart work is not multitasking and high levels of productivity cannot be equated with doing work in multitasking. In short, multitasking will not make us focus on the work being done, so the results provided will not be maximized. In addition, multitasking will also make us overwhelmed by the amount of work available. As a result, more hard work is the solution. Meanwhile, when we focus on work that must be prioritized (without multitasking), then we will complete the work more optimally and faster, without feeling overwhelmed.
3. Don’t Forget to Rest.
Hard work is synonymous with devoting all energy, time, body and soul to be serious in completing all the work that exists, without knowing the time and tirelessly. Meanwhile, smart work has the opposite principle. The principle of intelligent work states that every individual must not skip breaks when working. The meaning, is not good if we work continuously without having the slightest pause.
Research conducted by a senior MIT Sloan lecturer, named Bob Pozen, found that staying away from work every 75 to 90 minutes can help us complete more work tasks by eliminating fatigue and giving our brains a break to take a break from hard work.
