8 ways to work smarter, not harder (& reap the rewards!) - Part 1
You all know how much I love a good process.
Or a good system.
Or a good tool.
Or a good piece of automation.
Add them all together and I’m like a kid at Christmas, dancing around gleefully as your business goes from strength to strength and you finally have the time to actually enjoy life again.
So it’ll come as no surprise to anyone that one of my absolute favourite sayings is this:
“Work smarter, not harder”
That 24/7 hustle-life just isn’t for me - and, if you’re here, I’d bet it’s probably not what you want in life either.
As much as I love my business, I love living my life too. I want a business that gives me the freedom to go for a sea swim in the morning or take an afternoon off for a cooking class or learn kickboxing on a random Tuesday. That’s the kind of business I want to have - and it’s the kind of business I want you to have too.
So instead of grinding till the early hours just to finish our to-do lists, how about we do something drastically different and actually build businesses that do the hard work for us?!
Shocking, I know - but it is 100% possible. A 6-week workcation in Bali is concrete proof that I’ve managed to build a business that definitely lets me work smarter, not harder.
And I’m about to give you my favourite 8 ways that you can do the same, and leave the hustle behind.
Are you actually working hard, or just putting in the hours?
All of us *think* we work hard. Our brains and bodies are knackered by the end of a day and we’re all probably on the brink of burnout - but is it even hard work?
I don’t mean that it’s not hard, because it definitely is.
What I want to challenge you on is whether it’s really work.
Are you actually achieving anything in your 9pm to midnight laptop shift? Are you being even remotely productive? Are you ticking things off your to-do list that didn’t really need to be on there in first place, just for a morsel of dopamine?
More hours DOES NOT equal more work achieved.
If you’re spending 18 hours a day thinking about your business or working in your business or thinking about working in your business - you’re not going to be the best asset you can be for your business.
In fact, you might be the very thing holding your business back. Because you’re too close to be objective and too exhausted to realise that.
Working hard is almost never the answer. At least not in the long-run.
Sure, there are going to busier periods and slower periods in our businesses. And sometimes a 10+ hour work day might be necessary.
But I’m here to tell you that your business shouldn’t be demanding that much time from you every single day. And if it is, you’re in exactly the right place - because you NEED to work smarter, not harder.
How to actually work smarter, not harder
Ready to ditch the hustle, get rid of the daily grind, and actually start growing your business without burning out?! Here are my favourite (tried and tested) ways to work smarter, not harder…
Make the most of automation
One of the biggest things that helped me manage my business while I was on the literal other side of the world was my good friend Dubsado.
While I was sunbathing or sipping coconut water or hiking through jungles, Dubsado was doing the manual tasks you’re probably still doing yourself… Things like: sending contracts, replying to enquiries, sending proposals, booking calls into my diary (with zero time zone stress), sending invoices, sending invoice reminders, following up on cold leads - things that would’ve taken me multiple hours a week to do manually were being done while I wasn’t even thinking about my business, let alone being chained to my laptop.
And it doesn’t even need to be Dubsado (although I do love it). There are hundreds of ways to automate the little things in your business - and even though they’re little, you’ll be surprised how much time they free up! If you find yourself repeatedly doing the same task, it can almost certainly be automated - giving you more time to do the creative work that you actually want to do.
Want to learn more about Dubsado? Give these a read:
2. Set strong online boundaries
How many times have you picked up your phone to scroll the Gram when you were supposed to be writing an email or putting together a contract or doing anything in your business?
Social media is designed to keep us interested, keep us hooked, and give us just enough of a dopamine rush to keep us craving more. But when you’re constantly switching between scroll-mode and work-mode, your work isn’t going to be the best it could be.
So, it’s important to set strong boundaries with yourself when it comes to social media, emails or anything else you find yourself distracted by in the middle of important tasks. Use screen time limits on your phone or delete the apps entirely if you’re truly addicted.
I’ve also used Forest before, which rewards you by growing a little digital tree if you don’t pick up your phone for a while - and destroys that tree if you do! That little bit of digital-deforestation is usually enough to keep me off my phone for a while.
And, if you’re thinking, “But Harriet, I run my business through Instagram - how can I not use it?” - I hear you. But think about batching content and scheduling in advance so you’re still promoting your business and you can also set up an auto-reply in your Instagram DMs that explains to potential enquiries that they should contact you via your website instead.
3. Set up SOPs
If you’re not familiar with SOPs, take a look at this blog post to find out more: 5 reasons why SOPs are vital for your business (and what the heck SOPs even are!)
SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) are essentially any way that you document how you do things in your business. They could be a Google Doc with bullet points, a Loom video walkthrough of something, or an entire database of guidebooks and manuals and documents and checklists.
But how do they help you work smarter, not harder?
Well, because mapping out every process in your business and documenting it in some way means that you will always know what actually needs to be done next. You won’t be scrabbling around trying to remember how you did a particular project with the last client so you can do it again with this client - because you’ll know exactly what to do every single time.
AND if/when you get to the stage of outsourcing parts of your business, you’ll have SOPs already in place to help your new team members get the hang of how you do things - preventing loads of downtime while you onboard them.
And extra bonus points: the process of mapping things out really helps you to take a step back and look at things objectively. The chances are, you’ll find plenty of areas where you can streamline things and smarten up your business processes too!
4. Prioritise needle-moving tasks
I know it can be tempting to spend hours redesigning your freebies or adding fancy interactive buttons to your website or ‘engaging’ on social media - but are those things really going to be the difference between hitting your financial goals or not?
Nope, they’re not.
When you’re working smarter, not harder, the key is prioritising tasks that are actually going to make a difference to your business. Whether that’s putting in extra effort to an important client project or following up on cold leads to nurture new business, those tasks are more important to the long-term success of your business than many of the things you’re probably spending your time on right now.
Combine this prioritisation with automating your admin tasks, and you’ll have a business that’s built for sustainable growth in no time.
Part 2 is coming soon…
But in the meantime if this is super helpful and you want to know how I can help your business thrive, pop over here to read more about me and book a call to chat!