Hard work hacks article
The article delves into the author’s personal experience of reconciling the seemingly contradictory traits of being lazy and ambitious. The author provides insights into how they’ve managed to achieve a lot despite a natural inclination towards laziness, challenging conventional wisdom about hard work and smart work. Here are the main messages and practical tips for real life:
Main Messages
- Ambition vs. Laziness:
- The author identifies themselves as both lazy and ambitious. They acknowledge the tension between the desire to achieve great things (ambition) and the desire to avoid hard work (laziness).
- Rejection of ‘Smart Work’:
- The concept of smart work is dismissed, as the author believes it oversimplifies the approach to solving problems. In high-level competition, everyone is smart and highly dedicated, so the idea that one can simply work ‘smarter’ is seen as unrealistic.
- Reframing Hard Work:
- The core issue isn’t hard work itself, but the perception of hard work. By changing how work feels—making it less burdensome and more enjoyable—the author finds a way to reconcile their laziness with their ambition.
- Mental Programming:
- The author suggests that one can mentally ‘program’ themselves to make hard work feel easier. This involves altering one’s mindset and emotional responses to tasks.
Practical Tips for Real Life
- Reframe Tasks:
- Change your perspective on mundane or difficult tasks. Make them feel more significant or enjoyable by focusing on their larger purpose or finding intrinsic value in them.
- Example: Treating mundane paperwork as a significant act of writing history can make it feel more engaging.
- Change your perspective on mundane or difficult tasks. Make them feel more significant or enjoyable by focusing on their larger purpose or finding intrinsic value in them.
- Boredom as a Tool:
- Use boredom to your advantage. By allowing yourself to become bored, even mundane tasks can start to seem appealing as a way to alleviate that boredom.
- Example: If you’ve spent time doing nothing, even a boring task can feel like a welcome change.
- Use boredom to your advantage. By allowing yourself to become bored, even mundane tasks can start to seem appealing as a way to alleviate that boredom.
- Self-Introspection:
- Spend time understanding yourself and how your mind works. This self-awareness will help you identify the most effective ways to ‘program’ your mindset.
- Example: Keep a journal to reflect on which tasks you find hardest and experiment with different ways of making them feel easier.
- Spend time understanding yourself and how your mind works. This self-awareness will help you identify the most effective ways to ‘program’ your mindset.
- Personalize Your Approach:
- Recognize that everyone’s brain works differently. Develop personalized strategies that suit your unique mindset and motivations.
- Example: If you’re motivated by competition, frame tasks as challenges or games to make them more engaging.
- Recognize that everyone’s brain works differently. Develop personalized strategies that suit your unique mindset and motivations.
- Self-Gaslighting:
- Convince yourself that mundane tasks are more significant than they appear. This psychological trick can make you more willing to engage in them.
- Example: Imagine that organizing your workspace is crucial to your long-term success and treat it with the same importance.
- Convince yourself that mundane tasks are more significant than they appear. This psychological trick can make you more willing to engage in them.
Conclusion
The author’s approach combines introspection, psychological tricks, and reframing to align their natural tendencies with their ambitious goals. By changing how tasks feel rather than changing the tasks themselves, they find a way to achieve high levels of productivity without the typical struggle associated with hard work. This method can be highly individualistic but offers a fresh perspective on balancing laziness and ambition.