Working Advantage vs. Working Hard: Which is More Effective for a better quality of life?

Is hard work better than smart work? I have always been taught that working hard can help me achieve my goals and dreams. But distinguishing which method would produce a more valuable outcome is a common debate. I believe they both have their place in achieving optimal results.

Working advantage refers to using clever tactics to accomplish your desires. It’s about being efficient and maximizing your results with minimal work. On the contrary, working hard means putting in countless time, energy, and effort to achieve your goals.

Imagine trying to figure out “on the fly” new meals to make and when to work out in between work and family. Rather than creating a schedule the weekend beforehand to help your day-to-day run smoothly. Both methods technically reach the same outcome, “eating healthy and working out” but which path is less strenuous and frees up more of your time?

Deciding whether to use a working advantage vs. working hard depends on your individual goals and circumstances. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits and flaws of each approach.

Working Advantage

Using a working advantage is all about working smarter, not harder. It’s like the picture above, rolling a circle ball vs pushing a square one. Let us imagine the shapes are suitcases. It looks a lot easier to just roll the circle suitcase instead of pushing the square. Again, a working advantage should be making whatever task you are involved in much simpler. The benefits of working advantage include:

• Time-efficient: Using the most effective techniques and strategies can complete your goals in less time.
• Consistency: While you’re swiftly completing tasks with your working advantage, it becomes easier to adhere to objectives and stick to them for the necessary time needed.
• Efficiency: By using the most efficacious methods, you can achieve better results with less effort.
• Reduced risk of injury: When using the most compelling strategies, you’re less likely to get hurt.

Just Working Hard

On the other hand, working hard is all about the grind, blood, sweat, and tears. It requires a lot of dedication and perseverance. The benefits of working hard include:

• Increased strength and endurance: When you are disciplined and invest a lot of time and effort, you’ll see a significant improvement in your strength and endurance. Whether that be in the muscle memory of your fingers from countless hours on the piano. Or, a better understanding of that new line of code that took you months to analyze.
• Mental toughness: Working hard requires a lot of mental toughness due to the inevitable micro setbacks and failures that tend to arise when doing anything worthwhile. Developing this mental toughness is beyond fruitful because it can help you in other areas of your life.
• Personal satisfaction: When you achieve your goals through hard work, you’ll feel a sense of pride and fulfillment which results in a dopamine rush from completing your task.

How to Work Smarter?

1. Work on your time management skills. Knowing how to prioritize your tasks for the day helps you stay all the more organized and efficient. I usually start with my hardest tasks and then funnel them down to the simpler ones.
2. Delegate. If you’re like me, you like things done a certain way and in your mind, you’re the only one who can do it right. This can be one of the top mistakes that affect productivity. Find trustworthy people to delegate some of your workloads to and give them the space to work on them.
3. Plan ahead. Create a strategy or step-by-step plan to achieve your goals instead of just going with the flow. Working according to a plan makes it easier to measure results and progress.
4. Shrink your to-do list. Keep your list short focusing on the top 5 important things to do and avoid filling the lists with unnecessary things. Shorter lists look less intimidating and will not give you the feeling of an exhausting day ahead.
5. Have a growth mindset. You should always be working on advancing your skills and acquiring new ones. Strive to gain more knowledge in different aspects and areas of your work.

The Bottom Line

If you’re looking to achieve your tasks with ease and efficiency, you need a working advantage. However, if you’re looking to build strength and mental toughness, then working hard may be your cup of tea.

Both having a working advantage and working hard have their place in obtaining optimal results.

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Disclaimer:

No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other licensed clinicians.