This is something I found myself saying a lot recently. No matter if you’re a 20 year-old university student, or a 45 year-old corporate manager, life seems like it is a constant fire. Exams, recruiting, dating, conference calls, student clubs, PTA meetings, carpool, performance reviews, one-on-ones, project proposals, and Costco shopping.
It’s exhausting to be a “high potential” all the time, all day, always “on the ball.”
So what to do? What’s the hack?
Work smart and lazy
I’m going to argue that we need to work strategically. Focus more on the outcomes, not just the process:
- What are we trying to get done?
- Who are the customers and what do THEY care about?
- What’s critical-to-quality and essential? What’s a waste of time?
- What will set me up for long-term success?
- What plays to my strengths?
1. Work
Notice the first word? Work. The first word was not lazy.
If you’re reading this blog or know me, you’re the type of person where work matters. Yes, you’re paid well or will be well paid when you graduate, but it’s just as much about the intrinsic motivation. Work. Do the work. Be good at what you do. Add massive value to your clients, your team, your friends. Develop your craft. Winning is fun and profitable.
We all have 5 things on our to-do list. The project, the proposal, the deliverable, the excel model. Being smart or lazy doesn’t excuse us from our responsibilities. We’ve been successful this far because we take our personal brand seriously. We are accountable for our work. We care. We are professionals, not just technicians.
We are grinders. My friends, students, and colleagues that I look up to, are all grinders. They do the gritty work. The push through the boring and repetitive work because it needs to get done. They’re not focused on “counting their credits” or trying to do less. Nope, they are all people I would hire. They are all people worthy of professional trust.
The following advice applies if you’re already grinding away, doing great work.
If you’re coasting in your job, looking at the clock, seeing if your boss is logged in, parking your car close to the exit, or passing off work to others. Stop reading, this advice is not for you.
With generative AI, ChatGPT, Co-pilot, coasting is career death. That’s no good. Start with doing great work.
2. Smart
Requirement #1: you are doing great work. Check.
So what does it mean to work smart?
Smart work is impactful
Management consulting is a $130 billion+ industry. Executives are hiring us to get things done well. Instead of doing it themselves, the client would rather pay us to worry about it. They expect that it will be better or faster than if they did it themselves. Consultants have to be strategic because clients give us the hard, political, and nasty problems. We don’t have enough time to be prodding or legislate answers. Strategy is about creating sustainable competitive advantage. Figuring out clearly what winning looks like then taking smart shots on goal and scoring.
So, we scope projects, define what success looks like, take the temperature of the stakeholders, and deliver great work. We score goals and do it in style; the work makes sense, resolves client’s fears, and has a good chance of success.
Even if you are an internal consultant, think like an outsider. Work smart. Don’t fall prey to the siren-song of internal norms, and habits. Run internal projects with same rigor, process, and verve of a $300/hour consultant.
Question: Are you wasting your time? Are you making an outsized impact? Are you delivering $10,000 a day of value?
Smart work is foundational
Smart work should help you long-term. Smart work is like a foundation of a house, you can build on top of it.
Too often, we do work that is transactional. Sure, it keeps our boss happy (for now). Sure, it’s on the project plan. Sure, it helps to pay the bills. But using the analogy of financial statements, it’s revenue on your career income statement; it comes and then it’s gone. We want assets and equity on your career balance sheet. Stuff that lasts. Stuff that gives you a long-term return. For example:
- Your work becomes a best practice template that other people in your company use on other projects
- You become mini-famous within your industry and get invitation to speak at conferences
- You design a product, patent, service line that gives you residual income
- You learn skills that accrue to you, that make you more valuable
- You build relationships with clients, experts, professors, and officials
- You hone your point-of-view that will go into a blog, white paper, or book
Question: What is this work doing for YOU? How is it making you more valuable? How does it align with your career goals? How does it open new doors for you to pursue? How does it accrue benefits to you?
Smart work creates leverage
Consultants live by the 80/20 principle. The simple idea that life is non-linear. Too often, a few things have a MASSIVE impact. So part of the game is to fine the 20% of inputs that deliver 80% of the outputs. Namely, what matters? What is the “one thing” that I need to do now, that will create a cascade of falling dominos?
- Working on a proposal that allows me to experience new kinds of work with partners I want to know
- Working on a key client that is based in my hometown (where I’d love to travel)
- Learning core skills that are in short-supply (or difficult to acquire)
- Creating network effects, where my customers and my suppliers need me to do the business
- Developing proprietary supplier relationships; where I become the bottleneck
- Delegating process-oriented work to direct reports or junior practitioners
Question: Are you delegating work, so you are bringing up the next generation AND saving yourself enough time to do higher value-added work? Are you building a team of people? How can you go farther and faster next year?
3. Lazy
Isn’t that a fun word to say? Isn’t it a taboo work to use in a professional setting? Yes, and no. Lazy because of insolence, or ennui, or quiet quitting is no good. If you don’t want to do the work or want to “coast by” – be careful, you don’t have job security. Someone hungrier will do it for less money. AI may automate the process. That kind of lazy is a trap.
lazy work is not wasteful
Let’s be strategically lazy. It raises questions like:
- Is this report useful? Are people reading it?
- Can we “outsource” this task to RPA (robotic process automation)?
- Is this better to be self-service? Why not have people find their own answers?
- Do we really need 3 people on this MS Teams meeting?
- Can we do this asynchronously by email? Can we do this by phone vs. in person?
- Can I send you a FAQ or blog post or video on that?
Questions: Are you making the necessary trade-offs? Strategy is what you decide NOT to do. What should you stop doing? What activities from your work life and practice should you “fire” from your portfolio of work?
Lazy work has flow
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is an author who described flow as a state where you are so engrossed in your work that you don’t even notice that time has passed. Think about a date with someone you really like – BOOM – time flows by. Think about when you binge watch endless Netflix – BOOM – it’s 230am, and you need to go to bed. It has your complete attention. Now apply that concept to your work. . . what if you cared that much? What if you were really putting in your 10,000 hours and gaining mastery?
If you were to go to a party at your friends house, what is 1-2 topics that you have more knowledge, curiosity, skill, and point-of-view on compared to other people. What can you research, learn, practice, or discuss for hours at a time?
Many of you have ready Donald O. Clifton and Marcus Buckingham’s book about finding your strengths. What are your talent, knowledge, and skills that allow you to do great work consistently. What comes easy to you?
What do people compliment you for?
Question: What are you willing to spend a LOT of effort getting good at over the next 3 years? If you would definitely make $$$,$$$ annually, starting 3 years from now, what would you like to be top 5% in the world at?
Questions for you:
- Do you know what areas you should be “smart and lazy?”
- How can you manage expectations of your clients, bosses so you can be “strategically lazy?”
- What are the leading indicators that indicate that you “smart and lazy” approach is working?
