“Work smarter, not harder”, is what everyone aims for. We all need to establish a successful work-life balance. No one wants to spend hours when the work can be done in a short time if planned and executed smartly. But the question is how to actually achieve that.

Well as it is said, necessity is the mother of all invention. A lot of research, study and survey lead to few findings that explain how we can get the work done perfectly in less time.

1.  Have limited Goals but be obsessed over them

Everyone knows that we should not be doing hundreds of things at a time, multitasking is not a good option. But this is just half of what you should do. First thing is to limit your goals and should be obsessed over them to produce quality work. The extreme dedication creates extraordinary results.  

Trim all the unnecessary tasks prioritize things. It is fine if you don’t check your email every 5 minutes. Those meetings which do not contribute towards your goal should be avoided. Reduce your activities and concentrate only on your goals, all your efforts should be on excelling in those.

2. Mastering Skills

As an employee, you are required to learn many skills and you should push yourself and learn those which will certainly benefit you in the long run. But practically it is not possible to master them all. Trying to improve all your skills at a time will take you nowhere. So pick one skill at a time and master it. It is again ‘do less but obsessed’. If you decide to work on your presentation skills than other skills like creating better reports will have to wait.

Now, you want to better your presentation skills. Give yourself dedicated 15 minutes in a day to review your performance. Evaluate what are the mistakes and try to improve it. Then, study the presentations of the people who are best in business. Observe them minutely, their talking skills, their tone, their body language, eye contact, and their overall behaviour.

Once that is done, you set small goals for yourself like, ‘I should speak slowly’ or ‘I should make more eye contact’. Work on it and use it well in your next presentation. Get feedback after the presentation. Ask your colleagues how you did and what you can do to improve.

Similarly, you can better all your required skills but one at a time. It might seem a lot of work but then it is certainly beneficial in the long run. Deliberate practice is an inevitable part of your job.

3. The Passion and Purpose

The combination of passion and purpose always yields the best result. Just having passion is not enough you even need to have a purpose. The top performers use this combination which boosts energy levels and increase the number of efforts they were able to put forth.

There is a strong association between the intensity of efforts and having both passion and purpose. The passion, people think come only when you are working into something that excites you, but it is not the case. There are 6 different types of passion you derive from work.

• Task Passion – Very obvious, what excites you.
• Creative Passion – Solving something critical by your creativity triggers this passion.
• Achievement Passion – Though the product you are selling doesn’t excite you, every time you crack the deal the sense of achieving something becomes your passion.
• People Passion – This type means you are the people person. The company or the job might not be great but the support and love from the staff keeps you going.
•  Learning Passion – Learning something new every day can turn into your passion for best job.
• Competence Passion – When you do something which you are sacred of initially kicks in this type of passion.

And the purpose is creating value for others in such a way that it is personally meaningful to you as well. The purpose is not about the actual tasks you perform but about how you frame them. It is how you see the value you create for others.

Passion and purpose actually reduce the work-life balance. Because when you are passionate about your job, you enjoy the time you spend working and that reduces your stress levels.

To sum up, working smart is not a difficult thing just follow few things do less but be obsessed, learn the skills slowly by challenging yourself and last but not the least be passionate for your job. To know more about it, visit jobaxy.com.