While working hard is considered the road to success, working smart is the shortcut. In other words, for most people, hard work is the only solution to success. However, smart work can make that process much faster.
In this article, we will take a look at both sides to see which one is more effective after all.
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The Importance of Working Hard
Since school, we are taught that working hard is the way to get good marks, succeed in exams, and enter a good university. The same is believed in work. In order to get a good position, we are required to work hard, not only for the company but also for our own skills.
All of these are indeed true and likely to lead you to success sooner or later. Other than success, hard work entails other benefits as well.
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You improve your skills
It is believed that in order to become an expert at something, you need to practice it for around 10.000 hours. That’s the average number of hours professionals spend practicing before becoming an expert at what they do.
Let’s admit it, 10.000 hours is a lot and equals around 10 years of constant practice. Just like children pick up a hobby, like a musical instrument, and practice it into adulthood, we must start practicing similarly to reach a professional level.
No matter how talented you are, practicing a skill for that many hours is bound to make you good at it. No one can say whether you will become professional good, but that much practice will definitely make you better-than-amateur good.
Despite the definite benefit of practicing for many hours, there are debates about the role of talent. Some claim that talented people do not need so many hours, while others claim that talent does not play any role in becoming an expert.
Either way, practice only makes you advance, so it’s beneficial in both cases, whether you are talented or not.
2. You develop good habits
Another big and useful benefit of hard work is developing good habits. Hard work requires persistence, concentration, and determination. In fact, these are the pillars of hard work that guarantee success.
Moreover, these habits are useful in any aspect of your life. Whether it is about work, a hobby, or a goal, when you are persistent and determined, you are much more likely to succeed.
Concentration comes in handy as well when you are engaged in something. When you can concentrate and stay in that state for a long time, you can finish tasks much faster and more efficiently.
3. You become better than average
Working hard means working more than an average person. School is a great example. Every class has only a few excellent students. And most of the time these are hard workers, those who study instead of spending time with friends, those who can pull an all-nighter if necessary, and those who are determined to become better at their studies.
The same applies to any other sphere as well. When you work harder than everyone else or most people around you, sooner or later you are going to be better than the average. Even if someone else has an innate talent, in the long run, the person who works hard is going to surpass the one with talent but no hard work.
The Importance of Working Smart
Working smart is equally effective as hard work, sometimes even a lot more. If hard work is all about persistence and many hours, smart work is about innovation and saving time.
Let’s take a look at the benefits of working smart to see if it is better than working hard.
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You save time
Working smart means finding ways to perform work faster and more efficiently. These can be innovative ways, like using automation, digital tools, or simply delegating work.
While automation may require special knowledge, using digital tools doesn’t. There are tools for managing projects, finances, time, and more so that you do not have to deal with them manually.
A similar tool is WebWork Time Tracker, a time tracker with screenshots that tracks your time automatically. If you work on an hourly basis, WebWork also calculates your worked hours and calculates how much you need to be paid, based on your hourly rate.
2. You save effort
While hard work requires a lot of effort, smart work saves you that effort. Instead of putting in a lot of work, you only put in some, while the rest is done in the smart way of your choice.
Some people find a way to automate their work process or a part of it. It is especially those tasks that are repetitive and do not require much thought that can be automated and save you effort. Others either delegate or outsource their work, and some use digital tools as mentioned above.
3. You exercise critical and creative thinking
When thinking of ways to make your work process more effective, you exercise your brain muscles to come up with new ideas. You do research, reflect, analyze, and generate ideas.
As a result, you might look at work and challenges from a fresh perspective and come up with new ways to deal with them.
Wrapping Up
Considering the benefits of working hard and working smart, it is obvious that both are equally important. It is also obvious that in order to have complete success and productivity, both need to be practiced. Cause when done together, working hard and working smart can work wonders.
You can start to work hard and transition to working smart over time. That will be the best recipe for success.
