~ Kushal
Hard work is the extra effort that we exert both physically and mentally on something. Hard work plays a vital role in everyone’s life. In order to achieve success in life, one needs to put in some extra work. In contrast, smart work involves putting less effort and getting more productive results at the same time. It includes more planning and management of time judiciously and accomplishing more in a short period of time.
Simultaneous Working
Hard work and smart work can never be separated because they always go hand to hand. Smart work is needed when there is a scarcity of resources or equipment. You can only do hard work when you have plenty of time available to complete the task. But when you have limited time and need to save time, smart work is definitely preferred more than hard work. A person needs to do both hard work and smart work together. Smart work makes your job easier and saves a lot of effort by following proper techniques and one can achieve better results because smart work increases productivity.
Distinguishing Characteristics
In this world of technology, machines have made the work easy to perform. Thus, we can say that smart work helps a person complete tasks efficiently within the time available. So we should do smart work instead of hard work.
Hard work needs mostly manual exertion, focus, motivation, feedback, commitment, etc. A person is required to do extra physical work with focus. And in order to complete tasks with focus, a person needs sheer motivation and commitment.
Smart work involves planning, scheduling, time management, use of technology, and much more. To reduce the required efforts, one should make a proper plan or draft of the work that needs to be done. After drafting a plan, try scheduling each activity according to the time available. Planning and scheduling will help with time management. We can use some equipment to reduce the time as well as the physical efforts required to complete the work.
Bangambiki Habyarimana said, “The most successful men work smart, not hard”. Let us take an example if two persons need to fill a tank from the water present in the well. The first person fills the tank using a pump and the second person pulls out the water with the help of a rope and a bucket from the well and then fills the tank. The first person completes the task faster than the second person and also reduces his work. From this quote and example discussed, we can infer that smart work is more convenient and vital for achieving success in this fast-paced world rather than hard work. There are many cases where a person gets more output by instilling the habit of smart work in their lives. So everyone should preferably practice smart work in their daily lives more than hard work, but since both types of work are inseparable, the importance of hard work shouldn’t be neglected.
The Bottom Line
There are two ways of doing a single work. People think that they can get a job done with hard work but without smart work. However, someone can’t separate smart work and hard work so he or she cannot only use one type of work all the time. Smart work increases productivity and makes work more comfortable, reduces effort, etc. But smart work cannot be done all the time because there can be a situation when you face a lack of resources and machines. This is the place where hard work plays a vital role. So we can say that it depends on the nature of work that which method of doing the work will be more beneficial.
Also read- Teamwork v/s Individual work.
