Summary: Today we are going to talk about 8 Ideas to Help You Work Smarter and Not Harder. Do you think working harder will get you farther? Not necessarily. In this fast-paced society, many professionals are already running at full tilt, so going faster may lead to burn-out, or worse, complete physical and emotional shutdown. So how do you get more done without working harder? This is key to work life balance success. Let’s take a look at these 8 ideas for working smarter, not harder. 1. Leverage Your Strengths, Delegate the Rest For optimal results, focus on the tasks that leverage your strengths. The goal with any successful business or project is to assign the team member that can deliver the best results with the least effort and greatest effectiveness. If you want to make an easier go at it, know your strengths and focus on performing only the tasks that leverage those strengths. TIP: To download a Free Delegation List Sample to help you identify more activities to delegate, go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/delegation-list-sample/. 2. Filter Your Info Intake On any given day, you are bombarded with mass amounts of information that can significantly drag down your productivity and cause confusion, overwhelm, and procrastination. Data is essential for making informed decisions, but beware of information overload. Only take in the information that is vital to achieving your goals and the goals of your firm – everything else is superfluous. TIP: Delegate the biggest information sources (email, research, data collection, data entry, etc.) to a team member or a consulting firm. Limit your information exposure to only the pertinent sources, while the team takes on the responsibility of flagging important information for your select review and firm growth. 3. Streamline Your Daily Duties Do not try to do it all yourself. The ability to focus your energy on the most important tasks of the day has a direct effect on the quality of the results. Therefore, it’s vital that you streamline your daily duties to only the most important tasks that require your focused attention, and those things that only you can do and can’t be done by someone else. TIP: Create a daily schedule of the most important and highest payoff tasks of the day – and stick to it (not always easy but critical to your success). Reduce and eliminate the non-essential duties (the tasks that are either not in alignment with your core values and/or are not income-generating) from your daily schedule. Take advantage of the high-content Free Webinars to help you be even more effective at time management and more by going to: https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/free-articles/free-webinars/. 4. Recognize Stress Signals The mind and body require rest and nutrition for peak performance. While many of us convince ourselves that working harder is the only way to get ahead, it may not produce the desired results. Take breaks, enjoy personal time, and tend to your well-being is important to overall life success. Sometimes a little rest can significantly increase productivity. TIP: Listen to your body. Pay attention to your energy level. Pushing harder to make things happen may only make the process more frustrating and even exhausting. If working harder doesn’t feel right, give yourself permission to take a break. Be it 15 minutes or 1 hour, recognizing your stress signals can help you know when your body and mind need rest. You will perform better and more effectively when you have all your positive energy flowing. 5. Create Just Enough Pressure How many times have you procrastinated on getting something done only to cram the day or night before it was due? Creating just enough pressure may be the “tipping point” that you believe creates the focus you need to reach peak-productivity. TIP: Pay attention to what drives you to complete a task. Does it require a non-pressured, open-space environment with lots of time? Or some-what of a high-pressured environment to
