What’s the #1 thing you can do to work smart? Professionalize whatever you do. Here are three tips to do that:
- Identify, study, and follow the proven best practices in your field and your organization. Turn them into standard operating procedures.
- Bank and reuse repeatable solutions, rather than reinventing the wheel. These are the solutions to recurring problems that naturally emerge when you regularly use your standard operating procedures.
- Use whatever job aids you can find—such as work instructions, checklists, templates, and prior work products. They will help you systematically follow those best practices and use those repeatable solutions. Once you get comfortable with the basics, build some job aids of your own.