Work Smarter Not Harder

While listening to one of my favorite podcasts this week “Mindpump”, they discussed the benefits of working smarter and not harder. I’ve heard this phrase gets thrown around many times such as in the “Four-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris and by others around me. This was one of the first times where I took a step back and reassessed how I am going about achieving my goals and aspirations. For many of my goals, I created a plan to move from A—> to B and followed it almost religiously. Rarely would I reassess my plan. As I prepare for medical school, I know the workload will be immense and it will be easy to overwork myself. So how can we start to work smarter instead of harder? First, find what takes the most time and energy out of your day. Next, find ways to automate this task or increase your efficiency. Let’s take answering emails as an example. Sure we could read and reply to every email the second it arrives in our inbox, but this often distracts us from other important work. Instead, we can set two or three times a day where we check and respond to our emails/messages. Another solution, if you have the funds, is to hire a personal assistant to reply to messages/emails. Not only will this reduce distractions throughout the day, but it will also make focusing on the most critical aspects of your day that much easier. This is just one example, but we can all look into our lives to find ways to save time. One thing to remember that I often forget is to use this time intentionally. At times I will find myself doing random busy work just for the sake of being productive or working hard. This extra time we can gain should be used to pursue hobbies, passions, and enjoy relaxing nights with friends/family. An area in my life where I’ve applied this work smarter not harder mentality has been fitness. For a long time, I’ve always been in the gym 6-7 days a week rarely giving my body time to rest. After reassessing my fitness goals, I decided to uptake a new program that only requires 2-3 days in the gym and focus on recovering the remaining days in the week. Strangely enough, I’ve noticed my progress in the gym increase more so than when I was going daily, and the extra time has been well spent reading, learning a new language, and most importantly spending time with those around me. I promise that I’ll keep looking for new ways to work smarter and not harder.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject, please reach out to me with any comments at theonlyCV@yahoo.com

Pass this article on, it might just make someone’s day!