In our society we always congratulate working hard, but not really working smarter. This state of mind we even apply to how we work. Our logic is that if we work harder, we are more likely to succeed. This is not fully true.
What do I mean?
Let me give you an example. Lets say that you needed to memorize over 100 words for a spelling and vocabulary test. You have tried to look at them say them out loud to memorize the spelling and read them to yourself over and over again. Naturally this takes forever. Now, your friend does another method. He works on one word at a time, and consciously visualizes the word and the meaning. Then he tries to put it in a sentence and in doing so is adding tags to that word in his mind. This is considered a less time consuming way because once you do this with a word, you are guaranteed to remember it.
You find that you have been spending most of your time trying to memorize the 100 words and your friend has memorized them with much less effort.
The first step to working smarter not harder is to find a method that takes you a lot of time and see if your can do it another way. An example is if you are trying to work on your abs. You have been doing 100 sit-ups everyday and still have not seen much results. Then, you look online for something more effective. You find an exercise online called the reverse crunch. This exercise does not hurt your lower back, it better targets your abs, and can be done in less time.
This can also be applied to expanding your knowledge base and increasing your intelligence. If you want to learn about roman history, instead of looking in a library for a book on the subject, with a few clicks you can find vast amounts of knowledge from an internet search.
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