Make no mistake, hard work pays. But when combined with working smart, a better result ensues. What tips can be used to rewire your old self into working smarter and achieving better results? Let’s take a look:

Admit Smart Work Compliments Hard Work
A hard work versus smart work approach only pitches one to choose between a no-strategy or lazy attitude to work. Both are bad for business. The idea is to know that both complement each other. You work hard, and then smart, noting what works and what doesn’t.

Planning and Strategy
What differentiates any top performer from the crowd is the ability to have a winning game plan and execute it. Smart work is sitting down to plan your day, prioritizing tasks, setting up your to-dos and following through.

Eyes on the Prize
What’s the big idea of what you’re doing? How does it fit into your own and your organization’s goals? If you can’t answer the question objectively (or at least try) then you are just a bit higher than the beaver running the spinning wheel in the science lab – now that’s hard work.

Personal or Team Effort
Most hard workers tend to do it alone, that’s fine. Except it takes longer, gets lonelier, few stories to tell and zero bonding. Nothing beats a team that is in sync – not even an energetic workaholic. The smart route is to leverage on the strength of others and have a compounded impact. Afterall, our idea is always way better than one person’s idea. Not so?

Know and Play to Strengths
Comparative advantage is key in economics, and also top performance. Knowing what one is good at and concentrating on those is actually smart work (quality over quantity). You can always get team mates to augment your efforts in places that are lacking (see previous point) or even outsource. It takes smart work to identify and utilise key strengths, while bringing in others to mitigate perceived weakness.

Higher Purpose
A combination of smart work and soft work should lead to an action plan solving a higher purpose through value addition. Think about it, every brand you see today is a solution to a nagging or not so obvious problem. When you work hard and then smart, you create an impact that you’ll be proud of.  Go ahead and start something you’ll be proud off tomorrow! Remember, start now!