Once upon a time, there was a crow flying in the sky, searching for some water. At once it could see a pot outside of a house but with very little water inside. The crow tried to drink it but failed since its beak was not long enough to drink it at all. The crow flew away to bring some “stones”. I know that you already know this story how the crow put stones to the pot, till it could get the water level up. However, I am not going to tell that same story about crow again. Today I am telling you about a crow who lives in this millennium. This crow doesn’t fly away for several time to bring stones but fly away for once and bring a “straw” and put it to the bottom of the pot and drink the water at once.

Anyway, now there is nothing to tell you further, I have already given you the answer for my above topic “Are you a hard worker or a smart worker?”

Generally, we learn to draw inferences from our past experiences. Actually, this gives us a proper direction on how to solve the issue with the most appropriate solution. Hard work imposes pure dedication in order to achieve an outstanding result with fewer errors. This methodology struggles for perfection at every stage of execution.

On the other hand, the branches of the smart work have been also grown up from the seed of hard work. When we start to network our thoughts with our experience, we can easily reach the initial level of success. This brings us to the secret of next phase. When the man power get high value to the expected productivity, it is beneficial to accomplish a given task within the time without much physical strain. Anyway, to derive the shortcut techniques, smart work would lead the mental stress. But when the smart work is formulated with high accuracy, we can deal with much efficiency and good command of the subject.

Smart works are not mere “short-cuts”. It’s true that shortcuts have been also discovered by smart people. Yet, it does not mean that they are lazy but it shows that their priority and value for each passing second. Again it makes the task, well organized. By that, we can expect a better productivity even in a short run. This is what needed in every work we do, especially in business. If we describe hard work is something “unique”, then smart work is termed as an “ideal peace of uniqueness”.

According to some old methodologies, working hard is doing the same thing over and over again like that crow who was trying to reach that water level up; putting stones as much as it could and not trying to be efficient in the way one does his/her job. Unfortunately, corporate world tends to reward people who work hard than smart, simply because modern management has still not figured out the difference between traditional factory workers and knowledge workers. Therefore, sometimes people pretend to be hard working as their bosses expect them to spend long hour than use their own brains. But those hard working people can come up with many innovative ideas to give an impression that employer would not exist without them.

If we simply compare and contrast the major differences of these two topics, we may find out these facts in major. Hard work takes much time to see the results. They are best for long-term goals and its success is also assured. It increases the probability of one becoming successful as well. It only pays off at the moment it meets the right plan of action and works harder than luck and beat talents when talent doesn’t work hard.  On the other hand, smart work is best for short term goals which are to be reached faster. It saves lots of time and allows the worker to be more organized. Smart work can get instant fame by helping to earn his/her name too.

In a nutshell, working smart is finding ways to work efficiently, cutting all the wastes, avoiding rework and using experiences and knowledge in a manageable way to deliver the best results in the quickest possible time. In this new developed world, people are much busier than ever and time and manpower is much valuable ever than they were before. All of us run after goals. So, smart workers can always do better than the hard workers.