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4 TIPS TO WORKING REALLY SMART

4 TIPS TO WORKING REALLY SMART
4 Tips to working really smart

4 TIPS TO WORKING REALLY SMART – They say that you can always buy more money, but you can never buy more time. The feeling of burning out is a great way to ensure that you never get the chance to enjoy your hard earned money or your time. Working 52 weeks a year and putting in 16 to 18 hour days will definitely burn you out.

Check for any red flags of being over-committed. Do you get up at 5 AM and are packing every day with actions until you fall asleep at night? Do you find yourself chasing multiple goals and driving yourself to complete a crazy unreal weekly to-do list? We all do this every now and then. But if it starts becoming the norm, don’t you think it’s time to take a time out to reassess everything?

Let’s take some time to pause, re-charge, reflect and explore. Look at how the world’s wealthiest and most successful people find a great balance from spending the morning walking around the neighborhood, reading a book for 30 minutes, or taking some time to do some meditation or exercise.

I know you have financial goals that are present to direct your focus on what’s important for you, but I do not wish anybody to become a slave to them. You will need to work harder than average, as you will discover as you go on, but you need to work smarter than the average person does too.

People need to learn to make comfortable and sustainable choices about how to use time wisely, to allow getting the important things done without killing themselves before even enjoying the byproducts of success.

Here are 4 tips to working really smart:

1. OBSERVE YOUR TIME BRUTALLY – You need to be smart with your time, as an employee, investor or an entrepreneur like me. Observe how time is used and compare that to how there is a need to consume it.

2. IDENTIFY YOUR ACTIVITIES THAT HELP YOU, THOSE THAT YOU CAN SHORTEN OR REMOVE – You need to monitor your day and do everything to streamline it. What do I mean by it?

– What are your activities that you can eliminate or shorten the time you spend without losing the value it brings to you?

– Are there any distractions that can be stopped that you’re being drawn to? For me, it’s a mixture of playing mindless phone games, checking phone notifications and having more than 2 meals in a day (I don’t recommend you having just 1 big meal in a day like me. It took me 6 months to be able to just have tea in the morning, protein shake for lunch and a good dinner of chicken or fish with vegetables as a normal routine). I now have no games on my electronic devices nor any consoles for playing and I don’t have any notifications on for my phones except for Text Messages or Phone Calls.

– Do you find yourself being tied up to 3 to 5 meetings every day? You may seem like you’re getting a lot of things done by meeting so many people via Zoom/Google Meet or physically, but some meetings aren’t really necessary at all. I run and operate 17 companies myself, and whenever I feel like I am not adding value to any of those meetings or where I’m not really needed, I just leave. It’s something that I used to need to explain to my partners or team members. But now, they understand why I suddenly leave in the middle of meetings without excusing myself. And I let my team members and partners do the same practice also, so they can focus more on the important things they need to do for the day.

3. BUILD YOUR CREW/TEAM – You are not an island. You can’t accomplish everything your own. Hiring team members (I don’t like the term employees) or building your own crew is crucial to your success. The value that a team can bring to the table when trained properly is just on another level. Compared to a person doing everything by themselves. If there’s things that someone can do for you at least 80% as good as you or more, GET THEM. It’s worth it. I hired my own assistants, accountants and even my own creative team. My overhead costs might be higher than normal. But I sure do have time to spend. Like sitting on a bench somewhere at two in the afternoon on a Tuesday, people watching.

4. DELEGATE, OUTSOURCE AND AUTOMATE – When making money, it means being involved in a lot of daily activities. From holding down your day job, to investing your money. It could be time in other businesses, to just having time to be creative. The pressure that time gives can build up over time. Be sure to identify any tasks that can be easily and importantly be cost effectively automated. Tasks that can be changed or given to others to do (as stated in number 3). Examples are:

– Hire your own property manager
– Get a CPA (Accountant) to do your book-keeping
– Move to an online automated banking system. I love banking with Unionbank and East West Bank with their reliability unlike other banks that find ways to mess up. I also maximize using GCASH how it does all my bills payment with ease.
– Get an online schedule app like Calendly to setup meetings for you based on your free time
– Get an assistant that can do the little things that don’t require your skills to be in action
– Use a social media scheduler app like Hootsuite (Php 11,500 annually). This allows posting for up to 10 social media platforms in advance

Next time someone asks how to work really smart, give these tips besides those that you know of. Do share your tips for working really smart on the comments section.

4 Tips to working really smart

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What people talk 44 Comments

January 25, 2021 rhona

Every individual has the potential to work smarter but first they must put in the time and effort to know themselves and their productivity frames. There are no cookie cutter answers for how one can work smarter. While there are apps that can help you to maximize time, and adaptable knowledge that one can acquire from reading experts

January 25, 2021 Joseph Santos

Have a Definite Goal and Narrow Down on Your Focus. With a clear and precise definition of your goal you will focus on what is achievable and possible. The narrower your focus and goals are, the more possibility it is for you to achieve your target. Wider the target more difficult it becomes for it to be achieved. The number of times spent in putting your priorities right can never be a wasted time. Set the priorities and targets right it will help you to be a smart worker.

January 25, 2021 Joseph Santos

Build only on your strength and Work around Your Weaknesses. Spend your energy only on the areas you are good at, and forget those areas you are not good at. Those areas you are not good at, and which are very instrumental to your success you have to work around to fortify yourself. There is something good in the economy of comparative advantage.

January 25, 2021 Joseph Santos

Create a Good Working Space around You. Surround yourself with only those things that will make you succeed in the office and not those things that will distract you. Always do away with anything that will not aid your productivity.

January 25, 2021 edward

To begin, in order to work smarter you need to prioritize high-value activities. Identify the tasks that are the most crucial to complete your work and focus most of your time on those tasks. For instance, use a daily or weekly check-in with yourself to define what are your priorities. Then, focus on only one of those tasks at a time, do not multitask.

January 25, 2021 edward

Also very important, your need to have a purpose and enjoy you work if you want to achieve better efficiency. Indeed, when people are happy at work they are more willing to do what it takes to achieve the objectives set. Even though it can be hard to achieve depending on the type of work, wellbeing is a crucial component to workplace productivity

January 25, 2021 Hans Angelo

In my opinion, avoid overworking. We think if eight hours of work a day is good, then adding 2 or 3 hours on the top of it must be awesome and then we sacrifice our essential 7 to 8 hours of daily sleep which is the minimum for body and mind to function optimally manage time and work. Compromising with your sleeping hours will make your mind tired for the whole day and you won’t be able to contribute productively.

January 25, 2021 Jimbogs

I agree to the number 1 tip, manage your time wisely. Stop telling yourself that you don’t have enough time, you have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to all the geniuses in this world. One must complete the most important tasks first concentrate on one task at a time. Totally immerse yourself in it as if nothing else exists.

January 25, 2021 genesis

It is related to number 3, Learn to do teamwork. Stop doing everything yourself and start letting people help you as a team. It is important to realize we can seek help when needed. We cannot do everything ourselves, it is better to let someone who can do a better job take over some of your tasks. It will give you more time to focus on your most important tasks instead of wasting time trying to figure something out yourself.

January 25, 2021 rhona

To “work smart” means to work productively and efficiently. This means maximizing your time and strengths to produce better and more output

January 25, 2021 Albert

It is important to create a schedule with reminders. It’s always a good idea to be able to see what you need to do. Sometimes we’re not able to breakdown the importance of task until we are able to see them. Visually seeing a list or a schedules gives the mind something tangible to work towards. But timebanks and other schedule creators work wonders of productivity. It’s all about staying disciplined and finding which productivity plans help you work smarter.

January 25, 2021 Jerome

The most important way to working smarter involves adequately planning. There’s a famous quote by Benjamin Franklin, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”

This is so relevant! If you follow a solid plan of action there is no reason for you to waste time thinking about what to do, which often leads to distraction, it also allows you to properly think about the tasks you’ve set yourself and whether they’re tasks worthy of your time.

You want to make sure you have a plan for the next day. Before you go to bed spend 15 minutes with a pen and paper, or your phone, personally pen and paper are better in my opinion as there are no distractions. Write down everything you have to do that next day. Once you’ve written everything, go back and look over that plan, get rid of items you think aren’t important or won’t really impact your business or life that much. You only want to be doing tasks that have a positive impact and get you a step closer to accomplishing that end goal. Also, make sure to include breaks in that plan, everyone needs breaks. You can structure the plan according to how well you work at different times, for example, if you work really well in the morning, set your hardest tasks for the morning when your brain is at it’s strongest.

January 25, 2021 aldwin

One of the best ways to work smarter is to become smarter. Continuous working on your knowledge is helpful to achieve your tasks is easily. It’s also helps you in your profession, introducing you to new ways of thinking about your work. But that’s not the only benefit: it can also help you stay interested in and passionate about your work.

January 25, 2021 nico

Hard work is necessary, but just as important is being smart about the work you’re doing, and focusing on doing the things that will help you improve.”

Being hardworker sometimes pays off, but smart thinking combined with smart work will always pay off in the long run even if you stumble in the short term. Success isn’t just about how long or how hard you work – it’s about what you work at. And why you keep working at it. So Go for the most important tasks – who cause the highest impact.

January 25, 2021 nico

If you know how motivation works, you will know it comes in bursts and waves. So be motivated, measure your results to improve work efficiencies, be productive, combined hard work and smart work for satisfaction success.

January 25, 2021 James Santos

Living in an era where everything related to work screams “smarter not harder”, can often times sound very confusing as to what exactly does it mean. So, yes, What exactly does “work smarter not harder” mean?

Different people will definitely tell you different things, which does not necessarily make all of their ways untrue. A lot of successful people have already found ways to be working smarter, therefore excel in their job regardless of how many hours a day they work.

Instead of putting extra hours of work in your schedule, focus on becoming more effective at work by paying attention to what truly matters.

January 25, 2021 jocelyn

Do not stress over unimportant things. Build habits and a routine so that you are not deciding about every little thing related to work. Focus all of your energy only on important things and decisions, and everything else – automate and delegate.

January 25, 2021 renato

When you do have to work, make it a must. Leave yourself with no other option. This is not debatable, justifiable, or even explainable. You work. Period.

There is no other choice.

January 25, 2021 Anton

To work smarter you need to think smarter. We are all creatures of habit. You can have good habits and bad habits. The key is to fill your life with good creative habits. Don’t rush your work. Take your time to think things through. If you don’t have enough information/data to make decisions don’t take the easy option of guessing or listening to others views. Take the time to research, to arrive at an informed decision. We are all influenced by others around us. Don’t automatically assume others know best. Again, take the time to make your own decisions based on facts and not fiction.

January 25, 2021 Anton

Life is hectic and we have so much to get through but slowing down, thinking about what you want and what you need to do allows you to be smarter with your choices and thinking. The long-term value of this advice is that you will become someone that people want to listen to. Someone that is best informed and knowledgeable. Someone that has self-esteem and a feeling of self-worth.

January 25, 2021 Henrique

By spending more time and effort in understanding the process to perfection and lesser on carrying it out to come up with perfection in the end result.

It also involves creating your version of the process of your work with that understanding, as every process is usually created for common perusal, devising our own version of it, based on our advantages will replace those parts of the process that actually make us work ‘hard’ on something, while actually its that particular part of the process that we’d actually be finding hard to pass through.

January 25, 2021 Nathaniel

Prioritize your day’s work, begin with doing the most important first. Time is the essence here. Work out a weekly time sheet allotting yourself an extra-amount of time for each task daily. Allow yourself free time throughout the day so you don’t feel the pinch of habit forming unless you have a good path/guide you’re following for yourself, then habit becomes good.

January 25, 2021 Janeth

Be very clear about what you want to achieve with your work and most importantly why. Always connect to what you are working on( if you are trying to write a book write and write more than reading and learning about writing which is what most people do). Assess your results and seek to improve them

January 25, 2021 Jerome

The general point is that to work smart you have to be strategic rather than tactical. The key point, is that in being strategic, you take actions that are efficient, and will take the correct direction.

As such a key is to think before you act – review your actions. See which of the points towards your goal are the significant impact areas – so you can be sure that your actions have high significance to moving you towards the goal.

February 4, 2021 Aldwin

To me, “work smart” means coming up with better ideas and more practical solutions to create a productive outcome or construct a concrete deliverable that can add eventually to one’s life, work, business or even for one’s client(s).

It also means using proven efficient and effective methods of producing a result.

On the other hand, “working hard” means putting in the sweat equity of intense efforts and focused execution.

You may have ideas and solutions, but if you don’t put in the hard work of following-up massively and following-through consistently with what you have already set out to do, your expected results or desired outcomes would not be forthcoming.

February 4, 2021 Nico

Use technology to get organized. You cannot be your most productive if you are disorganized and surrounded by clutter. Get rid of those random piles of papers and sticky notes and use a simple electronic filing system. There are numerous software programs that can help you organize a wide array of customer and product particulars, allowing quick and easy access. Also, adopt a personal scheduling program that allows you to keep a calendar, to-do lists, work plans and a directory of contacts.

February 4, 2021 Jerome

Ideally, you’re going to want to work smart, so you don’t work hard (or less hard).

How to work smart will depend on your industry as well as how fast you are at picking stuff up. Not all short cuts are made equal; pick the wrong one and you didn’t work smart, you just found a new, unfunny way to work even harder!

February 5, 2021 Joseph Santos

Learn How to Use Productivity Tools
It is well worth downloading all the useful tools and apps that can highly boost your productivity. Search for Best Time Management Apps and Tools and install whatever fits your needs.

Now that is really a great way of working smarter, not harder.

February 5, 2021 Andrea

Expect Failure and Fight Paranoia. When failure rears its ugly head, some people get a bit paranoid and fear that this may become a trend. Projects will go wrong and failure should be expected rather than feared. Learning lessons from failure and analysing what went wrong is the best way forward.

“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”

February 5, 2021 Andrea

Learn as Much as You Can
You should always be on a steep learning curve. Look at your skills profile and determine where you need to fill a gap. Talk to important connections and network in your niche.

Keep up to date on trends and developments. It is a fact-changing world. When an opportunity arises, you will be the best equipped to seize it because you have never stopped learning. Just another way of working smarter.

February 5, 2021 rhona

The key to greater productivity is to work smarter, not harder. Working smarter saves precious time and energy for the things that really matter — your life goals, your personal growth, your health and your relationships.

Stop working for more hours and start working smarter!

February 5, 2021 Andrea

Hard workers want all the possible work to be done, while smart workers don’t bother with most of the work they should do. Instead, they brutally focus themselves only on the tasks that bring the biggest long-term impact, and those are all the tasks connected with creating, delivering and capturing as much value as possible.

February 5, 2021 Nigel

To make the most of my morning, I make sure to prep myself the night before. As soon as I wake up, I know where I’m going to start, I know what project I’m diving into, I know which problem I’m going to be tackling first. If you can set these firmly in your mind before you go to bed, you’ll wake up with far more energy and drive to tackle them—because they’ve been marinating in your subconscious.

February 5, 2021 Jerome

Say no to ‘Multi-Tasking’
We are humans and we are not capable of doing multiple tasks at one time. Though, we are much motivated to please our bosses by saying that you can manage multiple projects at the same time, just don’t do it. This will ruin your performance and can make you lose interest after some time.

Our brain deludes itself, but still, people say that they can do multitasking. In actual, we only shift our attention between tasks but switching between the tasks very rapidly will have an adverse effect on our performance. There is a need to focus on one task at a time to get more done. This is a useful technique to work smarter.

February 5, 2021 Jerome

Take the stress off your shoulders. Stress can cause serious health problems that can affect your emotional and physical behaviour. You can adversely affect your energy at work, health, work-life balance, and lose focus. In short, it will affect your performance at work. Look for stress relief activities like sports, go for a trip, listen to your favourite podcasts, go for a walk, exercise, or spend time with friends and family. If you take precautionary measures in advance, this will help by resulting in less or no stress.

February 5, 2021 Aldwin

You need to be positive to work more effectively. People with a positive attitude can take good initiative whenever needed and they get help from their colleagues in their work more easily.

A good attitude at your work and personal life will help you set a benchmark for your performance and this shows that you can take on responsibility. Moreover, this will help you in making quick decisions. This tip to work smart and not the hard way could help open doors of good opportunities in the future.

February 5, 2021 Jimbogs

No matter what is your job role or working in any industry, you will have to work with a team to achieve professional goals. You should improve your collaboration and communication skills. This will assist you to eliminate wastage of time and doing rework all the time. Miscommunication will cost your performance at work and money as well for your organization. You must work with your team with seamless communication to help collaborate on tasks and issues.

February 21, 2021 Aldwin

Establish a morning routine. Try to start your morning the same way each day. This could mean taking a short walk to move around before sitting at your desk or it could mean starting your day by reading a book for professional development. Meditation can be a great practice to start your morning with. Meditation has been shown to increase concentration, improve your mood and combat any stress and anxiety you may be feeling.

February 21, 2021 Aldwin

Establish a closing routine. Just as you have a routine for starting your day, you should also have a routine for the end of your day, as it will position you for a great start in the morning. Start by making a list of the top three of five things you want to do the next day. When you’re finished, straighten up your desk and put away any items that are out of place. You may also want to back up your computer.

February 22, 2021 Anton

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

February 22, 2021 Nigel

Know When Things Are Due. Don’t rely on your memory to keep track of important dates. Some organization and technology can lend a hand in a big way.
Compile your syllabi for each class.
Enter critical due dates from the syllabi into the calendar on your mobile device and set notifications to alert you according to how far in advance you need to complete the assignment or to study adequately. (And, as tempting as it might be, don’t keep dismissing the alert until a later time because soon, you’ll be out of time!

February 22, 2021 Nigel

Reward Yourself. Everyone likes a pat on the back, so remember to give yourself one!

Rewards can be big or small. Think of things you want to do—binge-watching a favorite show, or gaming, or taking a walk. Use these things as rewards for a job well done. Commit to putting a solid amount of effort into studying or working on an assignment, then commit to being kind to yourself with a reward.

February 22, 2021 Nigel

Surround Yourself With Like-Minded People
When it comes to taking your classes seriously, it matters who you hang around with; choose wisely.

This tip isn’t about your selection of friends; it’s about identifying classmates who share your commitment to success and buddying-up with them to share notes, study together, or complete group assignments. In the end, you’ll teach and learn from each other and perhaps make some new friends.

February 22, 2021 James Santos

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