Goal
Today, I discuss how working smarter improves your work ethic.
Table of Contents
- What Does It Mean To Work Smarter?
- How do you work smarter?
- Work Smart and Improve Your Work Ethic
- Actionables
What Does It Mean To Work Smarter?
Working smarter means utilize your resources to maximize your efforts.
“A man is worked upon by what he works on. He may carve out his circumstances, but his circumstances will carve him out as well.” – Frederick Douglass
Working smart involves fulfilling or exceeding expectations within your task while reducing your energy towards accomplishing your task. Your goal is to maximize your efforts while reducing your energy output.
Working smart is not about laziness. You can be incredibly lazy and accomplish your goal. Conversely, you can labor hard and accomplish little to nothing. Therefore, working smart goes beyond laziness and industriousness.
What Is Your Work Ethic and How Does It Apply To Working Smarter?
A work ethic is “an attitude of determination and dedication toward one’s job.” The stronger your diligence, the better you can apply your efforts at your job.
Your industriousness suffers when you are tired from working too hard for too long. One of the best ways to mitigate this issue is to conserve your energy. Therefore, when you work smart, you get more done while utilizing less energy. Because you’re getting so much done, you will be inspired to work more or, at the very least, not view labor as drudgery.
How do you work smarter?
Working smarter requires a mindset change and daily personal improvements. However, the more you focus on these changes, the better you will feel about your responsibilities and personal life.
1) Leave your emotions at the door
Your emotions are helpful but are often distracting. Control them.
Involving your emotions in your work will often spell disaster. You must control your emotions and separate them from what you’re doing despite popular sentiments.
For example, if you are at your job and a colleague is rude to you, you can get angry. This anger can fester throughout your day, distracting you from your tasks and making you tense.
Or, you can ignore the rudeness and focus on the task at hand. Don’t take it personally. Do your job. With your head lighter, you can work without distraction. Thus, you will complete your tasks sooner and without mental anguish.
If you want to work smarter, leave your emotions at the door and never take things personally.
2) Take care of your health
Your body influences your mind. If you eat poorly, live slovenly, and never get a good night’s sleep, then you cannot think clearly. The more sluggish your brain, the less effective your mind will be.
How do you fix this problem? You eat well. You pick the foods you already know to be good for you: lean meats, fresh greens, healthy fruits. You exercise. You start slow with home exercises before going to the gym once you have a habit in place.
With better food and more exercise, sleep will come naturally. Reduce your entertainment consumption, especially before falling asleep, if you want to improve your sleep habit.
Once your feel better, your body won’t slow you down while you work. Your brain will be sharper and more capable of fulfilling tasks.
3) Create routines and shortcuts when you can
Save time by cutting corners where appropriate.
“There’s nothing of any importance in life—except how well you do your work.” – Ayn Rand
The last pillar of working more intelligently is to streamline everything you can. When you simplify actions and activities, you remove much of the thinking involved in accomplishing specific tasks. Reduce your reflection on more minor things, and you can focus your attention on other items.
Where do you start? Always plot out your day. Have a clear schedule or a list of what you need to accomplish. Within this list, estimate how much time you can or should take on each task.
From there, figure out what can be constant, daily tasks. For example, check your emails every day at the same time and never at any other time. This compartmentalization helps you think better.
Lastly, jot down what you do and how you can do it better. Pack your lunch the night before, ready your tools before each job, check your work after everything task completed, and so on.
You work smarter by maximizing your expertise, especially when applying yourself to a problem. Maximize your efforts by safely cutting through the fat and reducing your thinking about minor issues.
Work Smart and Improve Your Work Ethic
Working smarter is the bedrock of a better work ethic. The fewer emotions you waste, the better health you gain, and the more streamlined your work becomes, the better you will perform.
Work smarter so you can improve your work ethic and excel at accomplishing your goals.
Actionables
“Everything yields to diligence.” – Thomas Jefferson
- How well do you work? How much can you accomplish within a day? Do you feel as if you do a good job?
- What barriers prevent you from excelling at your job and performing your best?
- What causes you stress? Why? Is there anything you can do to mitigate that stress?
Please remember that it’s important to do the actionables. You’re not on this earth to simply read but to do. To become an individual, you must act more than you consume.
*Image credit to Unsplash.
