5 reasons why "work smarter, not harder" can be so damned hard

"Work smarter,?not harder" they said. "It will make your business run better," they said.

I think at this point, we all get that it's unhelpful to approach business challenges like Glurg the Cavefounder, smashing them again and again with a rock until something good happens.

"ROI good. Churn bad. Ug."

But the problem with "working smarter" is ... um, it's hard.?

What does it mean to "work smarter"?

What's smart for you might be a disaster for me. But here are some possibilities:

• It often means putting processes in place, so the frequent problems stop being so frequent
• It could be an onboarding sequence that makes your engagements run more smoothly
• It might be working on a higher-value problem, so you can create more meaningful results with the same number of hours
• It can be saying No to the Work You Hate (then working hard to get momentum on the Work You Love)
• It usually involves finding ways to gracefully accommodate your individual assets and constraints

I spend a lot of my professional time helping folks to come up with better ways to organize their businesses and their work days.

Here are five reasons why "work smarter" can be harder than it sounds — and some thoughts on how you can get to a smarter place.

Reason 1: You're not counting thinking as work

I always find it interesting what people are willing to consider "work" — and what they dismiss as "going down rabbit holes" or "putting off working."

• Designing processes is work.
• Creating a checklist for yourself is work.?
• Looking carefully at business flops and designing ways to prevent them from happening is work.?
• So is decluttering your desk, or taking a walk to clear your head.
• Taking time away from your business treadmill to really think about how you want to run things: Also work.

When you're getting started, you usually need to put a bunch of billable hours in.?

But as your business evolves, you need to carve more time out to look at the bigger picture, and make conscious decisions about where to put your focus.

(That's what "what got you here won't get you there" means.)

Reason 2: The work you know is more comfortable than the work you don't know

I think it's funny how many professional marketers I know who would rather schedule complicated dental procedures than sit down to think hard about fundamental questions about their business.

In other words ... the first questions they ask every client.

Like:

• Who do you serve?
• What do you like about them?
• What does that person care about?
• What makes you a magnificent choice to solve that problem?
• What makes you really angry?
• What would you brag about if you weren't embarrassed to brag?
• How do you feel about the money you're making now?

We've both read these dozens (if not hundreds) of times. And we've come up with a lot of answers.?

Some of those answers were formulaic, and some were actually pretty damned good.

But no one tells you that you have to answer these same annoying questions over and over again.?

When you're putting together a new offer, or your audience is facing new problems, or the economy is lousy, or your own energy or health have changed, or global pandemics have screwed up your business model.

Even worse, sometimes we have to change an answer that we're emotionally attached to, because it just isn't working.

Answering deep questions is both boring and difficult.

So we take on another underpriced client project, to avoid tackling the reasons we're undercharging in the first place.

Reason 3: You're trying to get a solution off the shelf (when you have a bespoke business brain)

Who among us doesn't love a nice, simple system?

A book, a course, a TED talk — revealing the One Simple Secret to enviable business success.

We know that business is complicated. And we know perfectly well that one-size-fits-all almost never actually fits.

But the promise lets us feel good for a few days, while we bask in the glow of the simplicity and clarity we will get as soon as we do the exercises in Module 6.?

Books, courses, and TED talks can be intensely valuable. These are great places to learn new pieces to fit into our own complicated puzzles.

But the skills you learn there are just the start of the work.

The hard part is putting the pieces together in the right way for you.?

Taking what's useful, and discerning between "that's going to be challenging but it would be a good addition" and "oof, no, not for me."

Those answers usually won't come spelled out in a three-ring binder. They're unique to your VESPA and your unique business brain.

Reason 4: You're mixing cognitive tasks?

I'm not a fan of junky pop science, so I don't have the expertise to tell you whether or not mental tasks literally use different parts of our brains.

I do know this: It damned sure feels that way.

If you're a content creator, a copywriter, or a course designer, the creative part of your brain is the one you probably tend to rest on as a professional.

So when it's time to get analytical, you approach it with the same habits, tools, and context that you do your creative work.

In the same way, if analysis is your bread and butter, you'll tend to approach creative work the same way you do your spreadsheets and dashboards.

But different kinds of thinking need different mental tools.?

• Brainstorming headlines doesn't use the same metaphoric brain cells as building an onboarding sequence.
• Designing a robust workflow is a completely different mental mode than sitting down to a coaching call.
• And invoicing clients takes a whole different kind of energy than writing a podcast script.

Planning, connecting, creating, assessing, and maintaining are just different.?

And because most people try to switch between them all day, most people waste a lot of energy on task switching.?

You're the world's foremost expert in how your own brain works, so the best solution to this will be up to you.

But for most people, it's helpful to batch similar cognitive tasks.

That can mean setting aside dedicated time for analytical tasks like designing better business processes.?

And separating that time from creative tasks like content writing, or social tasks like client calls.

You may have theme days, or you may find that certain kinds of thinking work better for you at different times of day.

Give different kinds of mental work enough space, and don't try to jam them all into a single work session.

Reason 5: You don't have perspective (and you think you're "supposed" to)

This one seems to hit highly skilled people harder than folks at the start of their careers.

Because you're so good at the thing you do, you think you're magically supposed to be good at everything in your business.

And you aren't.?

Every one of us has blind spots around the things we find boring or uncomfortable.

And every one of us is so close to our own daily work that we sometimes miss the big picture.

Over a couple of decades in digital business, I've been fortunate enough to meet a ton of successful people. There's only one thing every single one of them has in common:

Every successful person spectacularly sucks at something that's relevant to their business.

There are nearly 8 billion people on the planet, so maybe there are exceptions. I've never met one.

Most people think they are more objective than most people

Tough talk: If you genuinely believe you're the next incarnation of Spock, I can promise you that your friends, family, or colleagues have a few stories to tell about what an emotional train wreck you are.

Because we're all train wrecks ... in some contexts.

Every freelancer, creator, and founder needs to regularly borrow other people's eyes, so they can see their problems clearly and start to design better solutions.

OK, how do we fix it?

So, given all of this hard stuff, what are the remedies? How do we get to the "work smarter" part?

I think there are two critical components:

One, you have to invite other humans into your business to give you some perspective.

I advise against making your spouse or other family member into your unpaid business coach. Even if they're smart and experienced about business, there's no way they can bring the objectivity you need to shine light on the blind spots.

Instead, cultivate an informal board of advisors for yourself. This can include a coach, mastermind partners, and business buddies.

Make sure your board of advisors includes different perspectives. If you have a "magic business tool" you rely on, make sure you have folks in your circle who don't use it at all.?

If your board of advisors starts to look like a cult, make a point to seek out differences of opinion and approach.

Two, use that borrowed perspective to create structures for success.

• When you discover the not-so-comfortable work you need to do, carve out regular time and space to get it done ... and get accountability partners to help you show up.
• Find a compassionate coach who can hold up a helpful mirror to your business. This often includes decluttering your to-do list, so you can focus on the tasks that actually deliver results.
• Develop your own business and self-management framework, to help you lean into your assets and work around your constraints.

As strength coach Mark Rifkin likes to say,

"Train your weaknesses, but compete on your strengths."?

If you'd like some help with that ...

I'm actively taking new coaching clients right now, and "working smarter" is one of the most rewarding things we do.

I get the best results with course creators, coaches/consultants, and experienced service providers like designers and copywriters.

What's awesome about working with me? Glad you asked.

• I’m your champion. I’m great at seeing what’s great in your business, particularly on the days when you can’t see it for yourself.
• I’m committed to creating an environment of gentle, supportive accountability. (This actually works a zillion times better than weird “boot camp” ass-kicking does.)
• And I’ve seen and worked with more business and content models than I can count. Which means there’s just about always a proven model we can adapt for what you’re doing.

If you want to raise your rates, fix an offer that's just not converting, or find the focus and perspective to help you work "smarter,?not harder," we should talk.

Get started by dropping me me a note right here on LinkedIn and letting me know what kind of business problem you'd like to tackle.

Or, if you're up for one hard question (spoiler, it's "What are your goals, in detail?") you can fill out a connection form — I'll leave a link to that in the comments.

How about you?

What challenges have you run up against when trying to be smarter about your business? Drop a comment and let us know!

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash