Work SMART is better than Work HARD

Many of us, especially employers, might have the fallacy that working hard is of utmost importance. And to measure how hard an employee works is by their working hours. This will lead to lower efficiency because even if your employee sits in front of the computer, it does not mean he or she is actually working, especially since we have work-from-home arrangements post-COVID. In other words, long working hours are somewhat meaningless, in my opinion.

However, for social norms, some companies still love to see their employees "struggling" in front of their workstations, maybe they think working overtime should be part of the job duties of employees. Tesla is one of the typical examples -

“Work like hell. You just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. This improves the odds of success. If others are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing, you will achieve in 4 months what it takes them a year.”

― Elon Mush

Despite the high turnover rate in Tesla, many of their employees still need to "pretend" to work even though they have already finished their work within their working hours, or some might even not take off, sadly due to the heavy workload. We will leave the topic of "4-day week" or work-life balance for later. What I want to share in this article is how to work smart. Recently, I have finally finished a rewarding book that definitely stimulates your productivity by building some good habits and staying away from the bad ones, which I am sure most of you must have heard - Atomic Habits. 

Some of the key learnings from this book in short are -

• When you are building some good habits, make your goal and habits visible, attractive, and  simply easy to achieve
• Make your rewards satisfying. Treat yourself instantly when you receive your goal or when you have finished 
• When you are trying to get rid of some bad habits, make the above reverse - said differently, make them invisible, unattractive, difficult to do, and not satisfying. 

I enjoyed this book so much simply because the philosophy is effectively communicated through solid examples, which you can practice in real life. Another way of looking at it, this book is relatively easy to follow the steps and practice in your daily routine. Strongly recommend to those who want to get rid of those bad habits, such as smoking, or find building a new habit difficult, to start reading this book today. If you want to improve yourself and be a better me. 

Step out today!