How Can I Work Smart?

There is this saying that working hard is not working smart and most people tend to do the former. This results in spending more time, energy and resources in doing things that ordinarily should be done in a better way and save time.

In this article we would be discussing the various ways through which you can work smartly either as an entrepreneur, a student or a professional in any field. 

Below are some of the ways of working smarter:

Make a weekly plan: this indeed will be a daunting task to many because of uncertainties that may occur during the week. However, successful people have a laid down plan for each given week which although not strictly followed, acts as a direction so as not to waste time at all and to do only the things that matter when they matter.

There are several ways of making such plans either on a calendar, paper or anywhere at all. However, making such plans on calendars and paper do not provide reminders for you and so, finding electronic ways of doing so is very helpful. 

There are applications and websites that provide such services that you can try out. Most of them are free while others are paid with several features depending on the providers.

Here are some examples of applications that you can use to make your plans for each day of the year:

Clara: Clara is a very intelligent email application that schedules and coordinates meetings for you. This application is very important because scheduling meetings is a very stressful task, choosing free times and all that. Clara has to be installed on your email from where it will work from. It does not only save time for you but also lets you get stuffs done. Checkout Clara and you will be glad you did.

Your smartphone’s calendar application: Yes! We often tend to neglect our smartphone’s default calendar application. But they are indeed powerful and can be used to plan each day of the week, each week of the month and each month of the year. You can set alarms for each event some minutes before the time. It can easily be customized to your taste and is completely free.

I make use of it most times and I must say, it is invaluable.

Monday.com: this is a small tool that allows you set to do lists for yourself and your team members as well. You get to see the level of progress for each team members. You can also manage tasks and projects and assign them to team members.

Trello: Trello is another powerful application that helps you organize what you need to do every other day. It allows you assign tasks to team members as well and they can mark each task as done or yet to be done. It also sends reminder emails to you or your team members whenever the time for any event gets near.

It is fully customizable and keeps you and your team organized throughout the day, making you work smartly.

Google Keep: this is a wonderful application that was built by Google Inc. It allows you take notes, texts, images, audios and also helps you set reminders which is integrated with Google Now. It is a very good application and I tend to save important things I wish to remember every now and then on it. It is available as an Android application, iOS application and also as a web application. 

They are all synchronized with each other and all you need is a Google account in order to access this wonderful tool for the big brother Google.

Turn your phone off: this might sound funny but it actually is the truth. Statistics show many smartphone users spend more time on their smartphones every day. This has not only reduced productivity among the youth but has also caused a lot of damage to interpersonal communications.

The thing is, turning off your phone does not mean actually switching off your phone but rather means uninstalling applications and stuffs that make you waste time on your mobile phone. Like I do, I uninstall my social media applications once I notice they are ripping me off my time. I uninstall them when I find out I spend much time on them.

Also, knowing when to turn on or off your internet connection is very good for improved productivity and smarter work.

Don’t multitask: Back then we thought that doing several things at the same time is a show of how good someone is. But the truth is that whenever you multitask, your attention is divided and you end up not doing much on a particular task and may not finish any.

This is not a sign of working smartly. Start a particular task and finish it before starting another and see if your productivity will not improve.

Take regular breaks: after a long period of work, it is ideal that you go for a break. This might be in form of vacations or just some few days off. Most successful people spend time on vacations and tour the world in a bid to relax and improve their lives. It is often said that all works and no play makes jack a dull boy.

Plan for regular breaks as it will not only make you work smartly when you return to work but is also good for your health.

Automate as much as you can: thank God for advancements in technology. You can leverage on the benefits of technology and automate most things in your business or daily life. Payments, calculations of profit and loss, business schedules, email leads collection and feedbacks, etc. can be automated. This not only saves time, it passes for a smart work and will in turn increase your business’s revenue on a long run.

Conclusion: having outlined how you can work smartly, it is now left for you to choose whether to continue with your hard work or to work smartly. Leverage on these fore-mentioned ways and you’ll be glad you did.

We would like to hear from you. Did you learn a thing or two from the article or have any suggestion? Let us know on the comment section. It will also be nice if you share this post across your  various social media accounts and help your friends as well.