6 Ways to Not Only Work Harder, but Better
Work harder.
Those two words are often offered up as a universal solution.
Want to get a promotion? Work harder.
Want your company to be successful? Work harder.
Want to be the best at something? Work harder.
But what does working harder actually look like? And, beyond simply working longer, how do we change things up so we are not only working harder but also working better?
Here are six ways to do just that.
1. Recognize when good is good enough
Chances are if you are good at what you do (and you sure as hell are because you read The Hum), that you are at least a bit of a perfectionist.
Most of the time, that’s a good thing, but sometimes it is the worst thing for you.
Psychologist Barry Schwartz discovered as much with his 2004 title, The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less. In it, he found that people who can settle for “good enough” are not only more productive but also happier as they do not suffer from the negative effects caused by continuously rising expectations.
It’s important to recognize the times when the stakes are lower and good is good enough.
Your co-worker really doesn’t give a shit if you use the wrong “your” in you’re email to her. (Pun intended.) And if she does, she is focused on the wrong things.
Spend less time focusing on things that don’t actually matter so you can free yourself up to spend more time and energy on the things that actually do.
2. Procrastinate. No, really.
A Google search for “how to stop procrastinating” returns 2.4 million results. It is something we spend a lot of energy trying to overcome, but here is the truth: For many of us, procrastination is a fact of life, not something to work around. That shit ain’t going anywhere.
We mentioned as much a few weeks back when we covered Tim Urban’s TED Talk, “Inside the mind of a master procrastinator.”
That instant gratification monkey is always around.
So, use it to your advantage.
You may have heard of this thing called Parkinson’s Law, which states “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
Basically, if you have 8 hours to do a task, it will take you 8 hours. If you have 2 hours to do a task, it will take you 2 hours.
A lot of times we fight Parkinson’s Law and try to tackle something we don’t want to do by giving ourselves plenty of time before the deadline, say a full 8 hours. But then, instead of banging out that annoying task in 2 hours, we grapple with it all day, ignoring all the other tasks we could have been doing and rushing at the end of the day anyway.
Instead, save that task you really don’t want to do until 2 hours before the deadline. It gets done just as it would normally, but you now also have those other 6 hours earlier in the day to focus on everything else.
Yes, your high school history teacher, parents, and maybe even your inner self just freaked out a bit.
It’s okay. Try it.
3. Try a daily plan bar
Procrastination is a thing because deadlines work perhaps better than anything else to boost productivity. But we very often depend on major deadlines that are far too infrequent when trying to get something done. Change this by giving yourself deadlines for everything, no matter how small.
A simple way to do this is with a daily plan bar. As far as I can trace it, this technique was first popularized with this 2006 Flickr post. And then perhaps perfected with this 2016 Bullet Journal blog post.
The idea is to break up your day into short (perhaps 2-hour long, see next section) blocks or segments and assign yourself which tasks you will have done at the conclusion of each block.
The feigned deadlines create that sense of urgency that so effectively boosts productivity.
4. Practice the Pomodoro technique
Our workplace structure has done us a great disservice in creating the expectation that human beings have the capability to work in 8-hour blocks of time.
This is not even close to true, and we have known it for a long time, but no one has done much to change it. Weird.
Sleep researcher Nathan Kleitman discovered more than 50 years ago that humans cycle through 5 stages of sleep in about 90-minute intervals. This same cycle applies during the day, causing us to move between times of higher and lower alertness, something scientists callultradian rhythm.
We are at our peak performance levels for about 90 minutes at a time. And then we fade and fade fast.
The best way to work is to go along with this natural tendency, not fight it. For that, try the Pomodoro technique.
From our fantastic friends at Wikipedia (because life is really just borrowing from Wikipedia), here’s how it’s done:
- Decide on the task to be done.
- Set the Pomodoro timer (traditionally to 25 minutes).
- Work on the task until the timer rings.
- After the timer rings, put a check mark on a piece of paper.
- If you have fewer than 4 check marks, take a short break (3–5 minutes), then go to step 2.
- After 4 Pomodoro’s, take a longer break (15–30 minutes), reset your check mark count to 0, then go to step 1.
The result? A 2-hour block of ultra-productivity tied in with your body’s natural tendencies with breaks mixed in to help you stay refreshed and avoid burnout.
5. Focus on your purpose
Humans are busy. We bounce from task to task, project to project, and often don’t take the time to focus on the deeper meaning behind our work.
But focusing on the purpose of our work boosts motivation, productivity, and engagement. As Daniel Pink covered at length in his 2011 book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, and summarized nicely in his TED Talk, we are at our best when there is a deeper meaning behind our work.
It connects us to something larger than ourselves and that develops a deep, intrinsic motivation that boosts our output more than surface-level rewards like bonuses or raises ever could.
Schedule time in your calendar once a week to reflect on the meaning of your work. What larger purpose are you contributing to? And if you don’t like that answer, find something new.
6. Find what works for you
The most important thing I can tell you about this article is that it may be best to ignore everything in it. None of it may apply to you.
Even though there are some truths that apply to a majority of people, everyone is unique.
The best thing you can do is not to try and replicate other people’s habits but to do some serious introspection to find what works for you.
Try to identify the times when good is good enough and log what it does for your productivity. Try to use Parkinson’s Law to your advantage. Try a daily plan bar. Try the Pomodoro technique. Try to focus on the bigger purpose behind your work.
Try the dozens and dozens of other techniques we didn’t cover here and then analyze and reflect on what works and what doesn’t.
Invest the time now to discover what will save you time in the long run. Find the techniques, routines, and mindset that allow you to not only work harder but work better.
You have too much to accomplish not to.
