High-level idea: to work smart, you have to work hard first.

There’s a common saying “work smarter, not harder”. On a high-level, I agree with the idea. Before starting work regardless of what it is, it’s beneficial to think about how you can accomplish your goal more easily.

But there’s one big caveat: how can you know about the smart method of doing things if you haven’t done it before?

There are a few ways of discovering the smart method that work very well for me (and other people I know)

  • Searching the internet, including forums and ChatGPT these days
  • Reading books – one of my favourites
  • Asking someone you know who’s an expert in the subject

But guess what? ….

All of those things require work!

Your first search for information probably won’t give you exactly what you need, especially for more challenging endeavours. Even if you are able to quickly find the most optimal solution, you won’t know for sure if it actually is the best way since it’s new to you. So you’ll have to try it…

But even then you probably won’t get 100% out of it since you won’t know the best way to apply it. It’s your first time after all. It will take practice to get the most out of any method. Practice takes work so…

You need to work hard in order to get smart.

The harder you work:

  • The more new and better methods you’ll discover
  • The more easily you’ll be able to identify what better is
  • The more effective you’ll become at applying the better methods

Put simply: hard work is the fuel for smart work.