Work Smart or Work Hard?

Hi Amanda here for Think Team! As a research and administrative assistant, on top of supporting the the research team, I occasionally handle overall company operations which ranges between all teams!

Perhaps, you are already familiar with su-re.co as a company that stands as a synergy of three tanks : Think , Do, Be – all of which handles different aspect of the company, and still strongly collaborate and coordinate together. However, think - do - be does not only represent our teams function, but also our values and work culture. Meaning, we think before we do - or eventually be something/someone. My explanation may sound vague and redundant, so let me present some examples.

Here in su-re.co we encourage all of our giftmakers to work smart, rather than work hard. So what does it actually mean?

Working hard can mean a lot of things. Aiming for quantity over quality. Working consistently without thinking about its overall value. Not being worried about the result. Not using any means to reduce the effort. Working hard can mean "going nowhere fast".

Whereas working smart means that we work beyond our muscles. We use our brains to produce maximum quality result in respect to its worth and effort. Working smart means finding the most efficient route. That is why sometimes our CEO encourages us to be lazy, so that we don't spend too much time on tedious unnecessary work.This strongly applies to our giftmakers team at su-re.co! Part of the reason is because we are a quite small team that are spread across Jakarta, Bali, Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara and Japan. This means that the synergy of our tanks requires an innovative way to manage it together. There is no room for working hard.

Here, we are really taught to think before we act. People may mistake thinking by thinking the "how" of the act, the details, etc. but really it's about the "why" that's most important. Kyla has written a blog about purposeful action here. We ask multiple layers of why before we do something in su-re.co. This way, every single action has meaning. Every sentence we write. Every word we say. Everything is carefully calculated. Because there is a goal connected to it. It is aligned with the weekly and monthly goal, and even 5-10 years from now. Working smart does not only mean we get to end our workday sooner, but we get to see the process of our actions today, to years from now. Because working smart also means connecting our goals with our actions.