It’s that old adage that seems to work very well in business; don’t work hard, work smart. But it’s easier said than done. When it comes to getting your business up and running, it’s a swift combination of persistence and dedication, not to mention the numerous teamwork exercises, technology, and that sheer gung-ho attitude to make the business what it is. This all sounds like hard work! So what can you do to make sure that you and any employees you have embrace the idea of working smart instead of working hard?
Automating Where You Can
The great thing about automation is that it’s an essential component to make everything work for you. Even in marketing, you can manage Adwords with PPCnerd and other scripts services, but also, by implementing back office procedures that can keep customer info on file, and social media programs that can drip-feed posts, you’re automating a very hefty proportion of your business. It’s not always that easy, but if you can automate, and prepare a lot of the information you’re going to dish out in advance, this means that, in effect, the business is operating while you are not!
Minimize Fatigue
From the perspective of any solopreneur, fatigue is a very common ailment. Decision fatigue is one of those things that appears to be so common now, that these little choices we make can be the equivalent of the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Not only can you minimize decision fatigue by little items of preparation, but you can work to minimize fatigue from the perspective of the people that work for you. There are techniques, such as the 80/20 technique, also known as Pareto’s Principle, that can blow your operation wide open. The fact that 80% of the work can be done with 20% of the overall effort can be very enlightening, especially to those people that believe working hard is way more productive. But in addition to this, by structuring the work day so your employees are minimal in their burnout, by helping them to tackle their most difficult tasks in the morning, means that they will work better according to their own skills. We don’t like to be too rigid and confined to a specific working pattern, especially if it is the antithesis to what we want to achieve. Ultimately, as long as the work gets done, the order they do it in doesn’t matter.
Working smart embodies so many components, but also, you need to think about if you are being clear in terms of your goals. Working smart is about focus and clarity, and if you have a very disheveled attitude to getting work done, it’s hardly a surprise that productivity is all over the place! These days, we should communicate working smart instead of working hard, but it’s surprising how many businesses don’t follow this maxim. But by embracing this attitude, you will find that productivity shoots up, and your workers will be happier as a result!
