You’ve probably heard the motivational phrase: “Work Smarter Not Harder!” We all want to work smarter, not harder in order to be effective at work and get things done on time. Getting things done smartly and on time requires more than creating a do-list or checking your calendar frequently; it requires you to change some work habits.
Working for many hours will immensely affect your health. Instead of working tirelessly, you can become more effective at work by focusing on the most important tasks.
So how do you work smarter not harder? Here are 5 smart ways:
- Improve Your Time Management Skills
To improve your time management skills, there are a few simple rules that can help you manage your time better.
Set up a printout task.
Ignore any kind of distraction (phones, games, emails, etc).
Abandon the idea of multitasking. Multitasking will only slow you down and can ruin your focus.
Set a reasonable deadline and do everything you can to meet it. - Relieve stress
Stress can cause physical, emotional, and behavioral problems which can impact your health, energy, and well-being. In fact, stress can obstruct your work performance. However, you can relieve that stress by doing exercises, playing sports, praying, attending religious service, listening to music, reading, spending time with your friends and family, going outside for a walk, meditating or doing yoga, spending time on your hobbies, and more things you can do. For example, creating a plan for the next day can release stress. However, the things that are proven to be the least effective strategies are gambling, shopping, smoking, drinking, eating, playing video games, surfing the Internet, and watching TV or movies for more than two hours ( John Rampton Work Smarter, Not Harder: 10 Ways to Be More Effective at Work).
- Look After Your Greatest Resource
When you are working, you should be in the best shape. So you work effectively. It is important to remember that you need breaks after an amount of work-time. Taking breaks, getting fresh air and exercise is one of the best ways of working smarter, not harder. This will tremendously improve your work, you will work effectively and quickly.
- Prioritize your tasks
Here is the main part, when you will have to abandon some tasks that are not giving you any benefit. You need to ask yourself: What tasks matter to you? What are your primary goals? Are you feeling distracted? This is when you will need to prioritize your daily tasks and focus on the ones that are most important.
Work on removing tasks that affect your work performance. Use the SMART goals technique, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.
- Don’t sweat over little things
You have to tolerate life’s little annoyances because life is not perfect, there will always be some obstacles. When something inconvenient happens, think about the fact that everyone faces inconveniences. So, rather than stressing, getting frustrated, worrying, and crying, try to stand up and keep going no matter what. A tip that can help you achieve this is to take a moment to step away and clear your thoughts. Try to get your mind on doing something else, like relaxing activities that prevent you from being stressed.
When it comes to working, it may seem to last long, LONG hours, but as we can see there are better ways of getting things done. Working smarter saves time and energy for the things that really matter, like your life goals, your personal growth, and your health.
So, stop working for more hours and start working smarter!
