Hard work(working hard) versus Smart work (working smart) (part1)

A short illustration of Hard work and Working smart

1+1+1+1+1+1+1 = 7 ~ Hard work.

1*7 = 7 ~ Smart work.

Let me tell you about my personal experience. In the I semester in my college, my math’s faculty use to give a lot of assignments and homework and each one containing 80-90 questions. Many of those are just formula based. My room partner, been given the same task started calculating manually with the help of calculator by applying the same formula for just different values.

I initially started doing the same but it was taking more than required time, I could complete just a few questions because of the complex formula and getting the result which freak me out.

So next day I thought of doing it by optimizing the time. As I have a little programming knowledge in python, so I thought of writing the code which will save the formula in it and directly print the value of output.
It took just 30 min to write the code and then what I need is to just giving the value of input.
This thought saved my time and I have completed my assignment with more accuracy and optimal time.

There was another incident, during the school days I along with my team participated in science exhibition, so we were designing a working model.

Student in a class needed to cut the cardboard sheet in design, some started cutting it with scissor and others were cutting it with knife as we were sort of cardboard cutter. A particular student came up with an idea and cut it with nylon thread, it was giving the proper design. This made the cutting easier for the pupils, he was appreciated by my friends for it.

Another good example is that of Bob a computer programmer-
Meet Bob. Bob was a coder (computer programmer) at a tech company here in the US. At a time when many jobs like Bob's were being Outsourced, Bob figured he could do one better.

Bob found someone in China who could do his job. In effect, he Outsourced himself. He continued to arrive at his company every morning and sat at his desk watching cat videos, browsing eBay, and updating his Facebook. Meanwhile his Chinese replacement did his job. Bob earned a six figure salary and was continuously rated the best programmer at his firm. He paid a fraction of his salary to his Chinese replacement.
In fact, this worked so well that Bob took jobs at other companies, provided they would allow him to work from "home", and hired even more Chinese. It's not clear how many jobs Bob was holding when his plan was uncovered.
But, man! That is certainly a great example of working smart.
Here is proof of the reality of this story:

Outsourced: Employee Sends Own Job To China; Surfs Web

His downfall was due to security personnel looking into why there was someone from China logging into their VPN (Virtual Private Network) and using Bob's login. Had he been a tad smarter he would have set up his own VPN at his desk and had the Chinese login to that, then from there tunnel into the company's VPN. Bob was nonetheless still very, very smart.
I’ll share how shifting from hard work to smart work enabled me to go from five-time music school reject to touring the world with groups like San Francisco Symphony

Here is a real life story of a man we shall learn from
When I was a teenager, my “local yokel” band director gave me a French horn, and he said “you have to be smart to play this instrument.” I believed him, and believed I was smart, but in fact, I wasn’t… not even close!

Working hard means putting in lots of time, even if it’s unpleasant
Working smart means getting more leverage out of your time.

When I first got that French horn, it took me a week to figure out how to make a sound on the darn thing. I worked as hard as I could but I didn’t once ask for help (that would have been smart, in retrospect..)

As a pretty quick learner, I managed to figure out some things on my own just working hard at it by myself. Soon I was first chair in our small town middle school band. I kept practicing hard and placed pretty well in high school too.

High school brought marching band, and that meant working even harder. We held our horns at rigid attention and micromanaged the way our feet marched on the football field.

During all of this, I got few horn lessons, did not consult with experts, did not think about how I approached my learning… I consistently failed my all state auditions and eventually got rejected from every music school I applied to.

But the story doesn’t end with hard work.

I studied Cognitive Science, Computer Science, and Chinese at Northwestern University. Chinese really killed me! I had to study up to 6 hours per day in order to handle the learning requirements.

… until Cognitive Science pointed the way out of the trap …

A light bulb went off when I realized that there was a huge gap between what learning research said, and how the Chinese teachers said I was “supposed” to study Chinese. I started using newer techniques like spaced repetition, and began to reduce the required learning time.

I started practicing my French horn smarter too.

At Northwestern, I started practicing according to to what I was learning in Cognitive Science. After graduating, I applied and got accepted to music school — Indiana University Jacobs School of Music to be precise.

Now, the level of “hard work” at music schools is stunning. Even stunting, potentially. We have biochemical limits on the pace of learning. Learning stimuli cease to have much effect on a tired mind.

Overpractice was the rule at music school, and it’s no wonder that 75% of professional musicians are injured.

But overpractice is required in order to make progress, if you practice inefficiently or aimlessly. This is the danger of hard work.

I combined the following ideas, to practice smarter:

<b>Spaced repetition</b>
<b>Interleaved practice</b>

Writing down goals
Deliberate practice
Tracking my time & progress
Playing for people regularly
Researching what experts had to say on technique & musicality

Within two years, I had won a full time symphony job. I then went on to win a Hong Kong Philharmonic audition (details in this podcast interview).

It’s not about hard versus smart ,Its combineing Both

I could have followed the common patterns of hard work in the practice room, and in fact, I did spend unpleasant amounts of time practicing. But because I worked smarter, I was able to achieve more in less time.

The real game is about integrating hard work (grit, determination, passion) with smart work (high leverage activity). If you put “hard” and “smart” together, you get a word that sounds like “heart”.

Go do your “heart work”. Learn how you learn. Learn what makes you succeed a little better, get a little more out of your day’s time. We all only have 24 hours in a day. But if you follow your heart and work diligently and intelligently, you are bound to succeed eventually.

Studying everyday for an hour vs studying for six hours over the weekend.

Although the length of time spent is the same, the former is smart work and the latter is hard work.

The former helps in better retention of what studied.
Reading everyday for an hour is an easier goal to achieve than six hours on a Sunday. Hence you are more likely to accomplish your goals simply because the psychological barrier is smaller.
Achieving smaller goals has a compound effect. Your overall personality will improve with small and steady progress everyday.

Let Define Hard Work

Hard work, I’ve come to believe through experience and research, is both what we physically exert and mentally, a state of mind. Think about it — unless you’re under duress or strict direction, why would you work hard? Well, you’d work hard for something you believe in. You’d work hard for something you’ve thought and planned for, that will lead you to happiness, success or a well-being.

This is my personal definition of hard work:

Working vigorously at a given task to complete it with maximum efficiency

Here’s the point: No one gets to define hard work for anyone else. Just like success, you define hard work for yourself. Your definition of hard work should support your definition of success!

It’s best for each of us to take the term and apply it to our own life. For me, hard work means going to my job each day, giving my all, then coming home and loving my family with all my heart, then working on my book, writing and marketing for my personal business. I try my darnedest to do these things with maximum effort and a positive attitude.

So, I pose the question to you. How do you define hard work? What does that mean to you? You saw my definition of hard work. You might have read Jason’s thoughts on the subject. There is surely value in this term. It’s been passed down from generation to generation, largely because it does have universal, significant meaning.

What is Smart work (working smart)
Smart work means choosing the right industry. Smart work means not choosing the industry and markets you will operate in based only on your interests, talents, hobbies, family tradition and the field you’d like to study in, but analytically choosing the industry that’s interesting for you and where you can definitely create and deliver value. It’s probably much better to be an average worker in a good industry than a top performer on a lousy market.

Why you need to work hard and Smart at the same time

We've often heard that it is always better to work smart than to work hard. But what is the difference? Do hard workers not work smartly? Or do smart people not work hard? All through school and college we've been told that it is important to burn the midnight oil in order to achieve something. You need to toil and sweat if you want to reach your goals. Then why suddenly are we being told to work smart instead of working hard? Being smart is about making the right decisions. If you make the correct choices and associate with the right people, you'll move up the ladder faster. However, working hard and working smart are two sides of the same coin. Here's why.

Why is hard work important?

Only when you are aware of how a certain task can be completed can you work smartly through it. All smart work has its foundation in hard work. To evolve into a smart worker, you need to focus on each and every step in your way. Every successful individual will vouch for the fact that they put tons of hard work to achieve their goals. No matter how hard you work, at the end of the day, there is always room for improvement. Hard work is imperative to remain focused on the task at hand. Every employee begins a project or a task by putting in his hard work. When he starts figuring out the shortcuts and strategies along the way, his hard work gradually grows into smart work. Relentless effort combined with an intelligent working technique will help you get closer to the success you desire.

Why is smart work important?

While hard work is the cornerstone of prosperity, simply working round the clock doesn't ensure progress in the long run. If that were the case, an individual who works two shifts a day would be richer than a businessman who barely puts in five hours of work in a day. Smart work is when we map out the route of the job at hand and carefully plan how to go about it. It requires being prepared for the obstacles that you might encounter in the future and the different methods that can be used to overcome those obstacles. Smart work is the modern version of survival of the fittest. Those who work wisely get recognised and those who don't get left behind.

To sum it up, one must remember at all times that there are no shortcuts to success. You need to work smart as well as hard if you want to reach your goals. While hard work requires you to pursue your goals under all circumstances, smart work saves a lot of time and allows you to be more organised. With plenty of competition in every field, working hard as well as smart is the need of the hour.

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