Why hard work doesn't matter

Hard work pays off. That expression is always said in today’s society, and it’s considered a good trait to have. However, many people every day work hard, yet they still find themselves struggling to pay bills or live.

I don’t believe that hard work is what you should strive for. Rather, it should be valuable work.

W = Fd

If you still remember high school, you might remember the equation for work:

Work = Force * Distance

The time your work takes can be thought of like the distance component. Time is constant for everyone; everyone has it in the same amount and can choose however to spend it. We all have the same distance in the work equation. Putting a lot of time into something equates to hard work.

The actual value of your time can be thought of like the force component. Just like you can apply more force when lifting something, you can learn different skills to increase how much your time work; e.g. you could learn iOS development in order to become more well rounded in order to get better jobs.

Finally, the work component refers to the value of your work; it is the amount of work you output based on your time and the value of your time, the product of force times distance.

Bounds to time and value of time

Time is bounded by the laws of the universe: you can only put 24 hours a day into something. You could work extremely hard, yet there is a limit to how hard you can work.

On the other hand, value of time is unbounded: you can always get better at a skill or hire more people. You can end up like Mark Zuckerberg, where you’re the CEO of one of the biggest technology companies in the world and just tell people what to do, and your time is extremely valuable.

Despite working extremely hard, if the value of your time is low, you won’t be able to work hard enough in order to get where you want to be. However, if you focus on maximizing the value of your time, the possibilities are limitless.

Focus on increasing how good you are and how valuable you are as a person rather than spending all of your time on menial tasks just to get quick money, especially if you’re currently in school.