Our culture teaches us that working harder is the answer to life’s problems. The more effort we put in on the ground level, the more we’ll get out, or so the story goes.
But the more you probe that answer, the more you find it lacking. Effort will yield some results, but it isn’t the whole story. Getting ahead in business doesn’t always mean working twenty-hour days. It also means using leverage.
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The main problem with “just working harder” on a business is diminishing returns. Every additional hour you put in produces less output.
There’s also a real risk of burnout. Excessive work can lead to the opposite of what most business owners want: a sudden desire to step back and do nothing for a few months.
So what can you do instead of just grinding harder? It turns out you have several options.
Work Smarter
The most straightforward shift is to work smarter. Focus on building systems rather than obsessing over the quality of your own output. Trust others to do a good job and concentrate on putting procedures in place to catch and correct errors.
When you are working on projects yourself, learn to distinguish between urgent and non-urgent tasks. Don’t always chase what feels productive in the moment. Do what actually needs to get done.
If you find yourself repeating a task week after week, ask whether someone else could own it. Could you find a person to fill that role?
Automate Tasks
The other approach is to put software and machines to work in your place. The more you can hand off routine responsibilities to automated systems, the more capacity you free up for high-value decisions.
The rise of marketing automation is one of the most significant breakthroughs of the past decade. It’s now possible to put most of your lead nurturing and customer communication on autopilot using CRMs and email management platforms.
For task and project management, tools like productivity planners can help you build a system that keeps your team aligned without requiring constant oversight from you.
Educate Yourself
You may also find a breakthrough by investing in your own business education. Every entrepreneur has blind spots, and the right training can help break through them and push you to think in new ways.
Self-education takes time, and you don’t always know in advance where the insight will come from. Over time, though, you accumulate enough knowledge to make sharper decisions and grow into your role as a business leader, rather than someone who’s always down in the trenches.
Books like The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber are a good starting point for any business owner who wants to shift from doing the work to building the system that does the work.
Focus on Building Relationships
Building the right relationships is another way to move your business forward faster than raw effort alone ever could. Tapping into collective knowledge and experience can give you the edge you need to grow.
Productive relationships open doors in ways that are hard to predict or plan for. The resources are out there if you know where to look and what to say when you find them.
Look After Yourself
Finally, it pays to take care of yourself. Looking after your physical well-being improves your life and allows you to make far better use of the hours you do put in each week.
