SMART WORK

Case: Tomorrow is your exam and you have not started the portion yet.

Student A

Took his book, started with the introductory page, read line by line, did all examples, did problems, revised a bit and took just a 2 hours of nap before the exam and appeared for it.

Student B

Went to a guy who kept class notes. Understood what are the important portions of the subject. Reviewed previous year papers, did some problems, took a sound sleep and appeared for an exam.

Result

It may happen that student A gets more marks than student B but that doesn't mean student A would have screwed the exam. If you ask me, the chances of student B getting better marks is more than student A because of some factors like sleep, doing particular problems for the exams etc.

Inference

Student A worked hard whereas student B worked smart. I am not saying to study like student B. However, he worked according to the situation without hampering anything including his health.

I am not saying working like student A is bad but why to put yourself in a risk position when there's a way to come out of it.

In simple, be prepared earlier, that's a more smarty stuff.

Inference

Student A worked hard whereas student B worked smart. I am not saying to study like student B. However, he worked according to the situation without hampering anything including his health.

I am not saying working like student A is bad but why to put yourself in a risk position when there's a way to come out of it.

In simple terms, be prepared earlier, that's more smart stuff..The phrase “work smarter, not harder” has been thrown around so much that it has become a cliché. I mean, who wants to “work dumb”? But many people (including myself from time to time) do in fact work dumb because we don’t know exactly how to work smart. And it’s hard to obtain solid guidance. When I first scanned for existing advice on how to work smarter, the picture I arrived at was incoherent and overwhelming. Prioritize. Delegate. Keep a calendar. Avoid distractions. Set clear goals. Execute better. Influence people. Inspire. Manage up. Manage down. Network. Tap into passion. The list went on, over 100 pieces of advice.

I wanted to bring more rigor and clarity to the notion of working smarter, hence my study of the work practices of 5,000 people. I spent quite a bit of time homing in on a good definition, and I think I’ve found one. 

First, working smart is about selectivity. Whenever they could, top performers in our study carefully selected which priorities, tasks, collaborations, team meetings, committees, analyses, customers, new ideas, steps in a process, and interactions to undertake, and which to neglect or reject.

Yet, my definition of working smart isn’t just about being selective. The very best redesigned their work so that they would create the most value and then they applied intense, targeted efforts in their selected work activities. Based on these findings from my study, here’s my definition of working smart: To work smart means to maximize the value of work by selecting a few activities and applying intense targeted effort.