Most organizational development, six sigma and training professional recommend the working smarter not harder because of the efficiency.
True most people think that by working smarter you can get to relax and slack off instead of burning yourself out by working too hard. Again everything in moderation and one of the reasons why you work smarter is to be able to accomplish more.
Take what I do. I prepare a weekly report that consists of getting data from several sources. My predecessor did it for 1 whole day with getting the data andcreating the graphs and charts needed.
I saw one look at how she was doing it and I said I wasn't going to do it. She said that is how it was always been done and well I am headstrong so I made a macro and in several aspects I was having a hard time so instead of putting more hours, I went to the analytics department told them this is what I need and this is what I have so far and ask them to work on it.
They were experts and so what could have taken me longer to figure things out they were able to quickly do it. I treated them for lunch for their fast response and so when I do the report I put the daily data each day so that I don't need to spend another day just getting all the data.
Then I run the report and while the macro is computing I can do a Focus Group Discussion or attend to other matters.
I worked smart to know what can be done more efficiently and afterwards had more time to do more and have a greater impact.
So I agree with Rodney Work smart and get more things done.
I work with Lean experts and of course this makes sense but, they also are counting work as 100%, not a way to minimize how much someone has to do.
Yep, this is the thing. Most people don't pay enough attention and apply the 'this is the way it has always been done' to every thing they do.