You know people tend to always differentiate between hard-working staff and smart-working staff, and I know there is a lot of opinions on this topic. But let's talk about it more, to see how it really is in real life.
First, let's compare Hard work vs. Smart work…
- Hard work is done by physical efforts and less use of brain whereas. In smart work, it is done by more use of brain and techniques and less use of physical efforts.
- Hard work is when one does certain things without effective planning whereas, smart work is when we get the work done through planning and people without any physical stress.
- Hard work may generate high costs for doing work whereas smart work leads to work done at a minimum cost.
- Hard work never fails, whereas, smart work fails sometimes.
And also knowing the difference from other people’s perspectives is also something useful to get your final opinion.
- Working Hard
- Doing the job
- Thinking/planning after doing the job
- Dedication or doing work without intention about the result
- No added value (going the extra mile)
- One way of doing the job
2. Working Smart
- Getting the job done
- Thinking and planning ahead of the job
- Always having the end result in view
- Adds value
- Many ways of getting the job done
But what is important and people intend to forget is that we usually do both at the same time, you know when you try to work really hard to achieve a certain goal.
You don't really just work hard right?
Usually, we start with thinking and planning ahead of a certain job, we also do show dedication doing the job but with the intention of getting the result which is the goal we spoke about.
So when you start reading through the above example do you really think that it's only hard work you are doing or is it smart work or is it both?
Okay, let me give you another example.
Most social media, advertisements and etc. usually show us those rich people, who work for a few hours a day and get a lot of money.
This is in short is SPAM.
While doing research, we tend to think that working smart means you working not as many hours as those who are working hard.
Let's say for example normal office hours are 9 AM to 6 PM, people who work smart usually do work in the estimated working hours but people who work hard do add another 2 to 3 hours.
And from my research, according to Quartz article “ America’s highest earners work at least 60 hours a week more than anyone else in the world”
whatever the average number of hours, most high earners in the US put in 60–80 hours a week. With only three weeks' vacation, that comes to 3,430 hours a year, way more than any international comparison.
So do you think that all of these people who are the highest earners in the US and a lot of other countries are also the same in terms of work ethic are hard workers because they exceed the estimated working hours?
You need to understand one more thing as shown in the figure below,
We will need to work both hard and smart to achieve success + self-satisfaction. You need to understand that people working don’t tend to do work because they have to do it but because they want to achieve self-satisfaction.
You do smart and hard work because it's the key to both success and self-satisfaction. When we do smart and hard work, we can achieve our goals, which leads to self-satisfaction with perfect execution. We must always remember that positivity and motivation come from smart and hard work. When you work hard and smart, you come one step closer to your dreams, and that gives you positivity.
Why is smart work + hard work important?
We learn important life lessons when we give ourselves over to hard work:
- determination
- attentiveness
- responsibility
- problem-solving
- self-control
These lessons, in turn, serve us in other areas like health, relationships, hobbies, etc.
An important lesson to take in mind is that we do not need to follow others as an example, you just need to do what is right for you in terms of the work ethic, because work ethic is only established when the person is satisfied with the way of how he/she works.
“Work hard, and you will earn good rewards. Work smart, and you will earn great rewards. Work hard and work smart, and you will earn extraordinary rewards.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo