Work Smarter, Not Harder

Yesterday, a person very close to me said, “You have a great life, Matt. There are plenty of people working just as hard, and they don’t have what you have.”

The answer to this seems obvious to me. It isn’t about how hard I work, it’s about how I work. I don’t try to work harder — though I do work hard — I try to work smarter. To me, it isn’t the amount of work or time you spend on your business, your job, or anything you invest time in, it’s where you apply that effort. I’m constantly looking for smarter solutions to my time management issues.

For example, when the housing market was booming in 2005, working a 40 hour week as a realtor was more productive than working a similar 40 hour week in 2009 when the housing market was less stable. So was putting the same amount of work in during 2009 working smarter? No. It was a buyer’s market. Working as hard in 2009 didn’t yield the same revenue as it did in 2005. The lesson here? Working harder doesn’t mean working smarter.

Whether you’re the realtor in 2005 or 2009, there’s no question that you’re working hard. But does it make sense to apply that kind of energy when, say, the housing market is down? No, it doesn’t. No matter what industry you’re in you have to strive for effective time management. Success is often based on that old “right time, right place” adage. It’s the same in business. You have to apply your time and energy in the right place and at the right time.

I have another example. I run one of my companies out of a warehouse. Having amazingly clean floors might be a great expenditure of time, but it’s not likely to be a primary revenue driver for my company. When I apply that same amount of time selling more, then that time is much more likely to be rewarded by increased revenue. It’s a smarter solution.

So in a way, time management seminars have a point. You have to prioritize your time to get things done. But I’d go one further. It’s not enough to learn effective time management. Because all that teaches you is to do things at certain times to maximize the work you can do. What it doesn’t teach you is that you need to work smarter by applying your intellectual resources in the right places and at the right time in order for your hard work to pay off.