“Work hard and you’ll be successful.” “You just need to put in a little hard work.” “Whew! I worked so hard today.”
We say things like this all the time without thinking about it. Recently, my bedframe broke and I needed the mattress moved. Despite my newly developed manly-man muscles (thank you, Trainer Tyler), decades of sitting zombie-like in front of a flickering computer monitor has left me unable to do stuff like, say, lift things in the real world.
My cleaning lady and her husband offered to move the mattress. As I was watching them haul it between rooms, it looked like awful hard work. I sipped my martini and pondered the thought. Hard work.
Hard work. To an outside observer, I sit in one place all day and think. Sometimes, it feels like very hard work. My cleaning lady hauls mattresses, which I’m almost physically incapable of doing. Does she experience that as hard work?
The more I thought, the more a pattern became clear as to what makes something “hard work” for me. I don’t want to give it away just yet, until I’ve heard your thoughts.
Please tell me: what are some things you consider hard work, and what is it about them that makes them “hard work” rather than just “work” or “random activities” or “play”
30 responses so far ↓
1 James Connors // May 28, 2008 at 11:21 am
I think that hard work is relative to the frame of the subject. Knowledge workers can do “hard work” by getting a project plan together. At the same time, building a dog house could be hard work for them as well.
In contrast, for a labor worker, the dog house might be easy work - relaxing even but the project plan would be madness.
I seem to think that hard work pushes the individual out of a comfort zone or requires an investment of energy above and beyond the norm.
Here’s an example that blurs the lines: In my experience, getting a mirror polish on shoes is usually considered hard work for many. To me, getting that shine requires an investment of time and energy but is very relaxing. Does that make it hard work or does the pleasurability of the effort make it something different??
2 Taylor Kent // May 28, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I guess if I am to be completely honest, it is “hard work” when it is something I really don’t want to do or don’t see myself getting a lot of benefit out of (i.e., something have limited or no motivation to do.)
3 JJ // May 28, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Stever,
“Hard-work” to me is any task which I know will, or has in the past, taken me longer, or required more effort, to acomplish than I originally anticipated.
I find doing my tax-return “hard-work” because historically it always takes me longer to complete than I anticipate.
Digging out a pond is “hard-work” because, historically it requires more effort and planing that I plan for. (erk meta-planning!)
Providing for my family is “hard-work” because the learning curve is steep and the hours are longer than they should be… but I enjoy it
Moving a matress… is not hard-work! Not even to my 4 year old who seems to enjoy rearranging her bedroom furniture on a weekly basis… keeping up with her IS hard-work!.. but I love her, so that’s ok!
I enjoy completing a task much more if it was hard to achieve, than if it were routine and simple.
“Laziness may appear attractive but work gives satisfaction.” - Ann Frank
Warm, but slightly soggy, regards from the UK,
JJ
4 Matt Searles // May 28, 2008 at 12:47 pm
I mostly agree with James.. what makes work hard is relative to our capacities… but I think hard work can be fun to.. depending on the work of course.
5 Jason Herald // May 28, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I would consider hard work something I really do not want to do. But that definition could be applied to the term work as well. I don’t consider my normal day to day job as hard work but rather an exercise in problem solving which, I enjoy. However digging a ditch would in deed be hard work.
6 Dr. Wright // May 28, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Hard work is doing something you hate for a buck.
Dr. Wright
http://www.twitter.com/drwright1
7 Forrest Wright // May 28, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I consider “hard work” something that I put more than an average effort into. That could be something I enjoy, or not enjoy. I don’t consider “hard work” to have only one polarity. “Hard work” can be “good work” too.
8 chabuhi // May 28, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Work that requires physical/mental effort above and beyond what is customary for the role?
But, I think the real question you may be asking is: What’s the opposite of lazy?
9 S. Neil Vineberg // May 28, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Great question. Working hard and hard work are two different things.
“Working hard” means applying yourself to a task. Ideally, you’re giving your all to things you love and you’re 100% present in each moment, especially with meaningful people and experiences. And you’re working hard at it.
“Hard work” reflects the difficulty of a task, whether you enjoy it or not. It kind of suggests heavy lifting. But in reality, achieving in life involves both working hard and hard work. Through each we learn lessons of life and explore the wonderment of self-transcendence.
10 Dave Drager // May 28, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I consider something ‘hard work’ if the work is trading in some other resource of mine in exchange for getting that work done.
For example, doing manual labor for me is a strenuous thing so I would consider that hard work. Or, if I work on the computer all night on a project that I don’t really enjoy, that is considered hard work.
However, if you enjoy what you are working on, and do not have to give up considerable other resources (time, energy, emotion) then that is considered normal work or ‘easy work’.
11 Isle // May 28, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I think there is also an element of time involved in what defines “hard work”. I have done many jobs categorized as hard work from a physically demanding point of view, and have found that it isn’t so much the nature of work that makes it hard… as the length of time that one has to endure something that is difficult or “hard”.
12 Brian Herman // May 28, 2008 at 1:15 pm
To me “hard work” is about the effort I put into it. I can be something I enjoy, it can be something I abhor, it’s all about the effort. If I find myself physically, mentally, or emotionally drained at the end, then it was hard work. Sometimes that’s a conversation with my spouse about household finances, writing a white paper, preparing a presentation, doing a budget, having a performance discussion with an employee, or cleaning the garage. Some of those are fun, some not so, I’ll let you decide which, but all of them could be hard work to me.
13 cartoongoddess // May 28, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Hard work is stuff that taxes you, physically, mentally (or emotionally). If it makes you too tired to go out dancing later that night, it was hard work.
14 Chris Brogan... // May 28, 2008 at 1:33 pm
At this point, for me, hard work doesn’t line up with “takes lots of my time” work. The stuff that takes up lots of my time ends up being there because it’s easy, pays the bills, etc.
The HARD work that I’m engaged in right now falls into two buckets:
* Predicting the future. - hard because I’m going on innovation and entrepreneurial gut more than previous models.
* Saying no. - hard because I want to be helpful to everyone, but I’ve learned that I can’t scale that.
Those are the two hardest things Im’ faced with every day. The first is hard because really big businesses are asking me what they should do next, and I don’t want to be wrong in what I tell them, and they don’t really want to take many big swings without numbers that will guide them. When the numbers exist, it will be too late.
The second is hard because I like being a nice guy.
Great question.
15 Laura "Pistachio" Fitton // May 28, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I find some kinds of physically hard work very rewarding: raking the yard, gardening, cooking an elaborate meal.
Difficult work is different for me - the emotional difficulties of travel, of not having advice heeded, of managing difficult personalities sometimes.
Hard work in the professional context can include the satisfying stuff. I might get into a real groove and generate tons of good ideas and content for a program or speech, and consider that “hard work” even if I have enjoyed it. This kind of hard work I really love.
Hard work in the context of taking care of my kids and family is often just plain hard work: emotionally, physically and mentally draining. But as long as I can rally troops to relieve me and let me recover, and as long as I can keep my kids safe, happy and loving, even the hardest times still bring satisfaction. It can be overwhelming, but my general feeling is of gratitude to be able to handle it.
The truly annoying hard work? I sub out early and often.
16 Mike Langford // May 28, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Hard Work is the stuff that I can’t accomplish on talent alone. It’s the stuff that requires more than just plodding away.
Hard work takes me outside my emotional and intellectual comfort zone.
Think about potty training a 3 1/2 year old boy. Talent won’t help. Operations skills won’t do it. It is emotionally taxing to no end. And my MBA hasn’t helped me one bit in analyzing why the boy just won’t embrace the potty.
That’s HARD WORK.
17 Selina // May 28, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Hard work, defined by many of the responses here, looks like something people don’t want to do but have to.
To me, it’s defined like this:
1. “I’m not the smartest, I just work the hardest.”
Harder translates in this case to more engaged, more passionate, more focused and less willing to let things be subpar. The more invested you are in something on all levels, the harder you work to shape or sculpt it to attain your vision of success.
2. Or the other side of the coin, anything you don’t feel this way about and Have to do, vs. Want to do, is attributed as hard work, and thus less attractive.
For me, the former best describes what I think of when I hear “hard work.”
And then, yes, there are the hard choices, such as Chris mentioned, the ones you can’t predict and have to make anyway, hoping you steer things right…
18 Susan Murphy // May 28, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I wrote a post on my blog a while ago called “Hard Work Should Be Easy”, anyone who wants to read it can go there and have a look.
In it, I mused “Successful work means hard work, but hard work doesn’t have to burn you out or take away from your quality of life.”
That’s what I believe. It takes hard work to reach your goals, whether its providing for your family, reaping fame and fortune, helping others or being happy in your life (the latter being, in my opinion, the most important thing).
Hard work isn’t something to fear, it’s something that, with the right attitude towards it, can be a rewarding experience. It might not seem like it at the time, but every experience leads to something else, even the most tedious, boring jobs can be rewarding if they are attended to with conscious attention and passion.
Mitch Joel uses the line “Most people are trying to make it to the weekend. I’m just trying to make it.” He’s on to something there.
19 Scot Colford // May 28, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Well, I think hard work is work that pushes back. The greater the resistance, the harder the work. It can be mental, social, political, physical, psychic, whatever. And the source of the resistance can be a person, an object, an environment, or yourself.
I swear I’m normally more practical-sounding than that. But I think your mention of your adventures at the gym made me think of the metaphor.
20 Father Spike // May 28, 2008 at 9:19 pm
How about “any work that produces an energy deficit– that is, that takes more energy to do than you replenish through your normal lifestyle”? To me, everything else is just manageable, everyday work.
21 Barbara // May 28, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I have to disagree with a lot of the messages above. “Hard work” isn’t work that I dislike, or otherwise don’t want to do.
“Hard work” is work that exhausts me because of the physical, mental, and emotional effort that I put into it.
It was hard work to do my first (and second!) half marathon. I enjoyed it, but it was hard.
When I am working on a project at work that requires a lot of effort, it’s hard, but I enjoy that, too.
22 Ulla // May 29, 2008 at 7:44 am
“Hard work” for me means exhausting work, not necessarily work I don’t like. Blogging is something I very much like to do, but it is hard work. Hard work are things which aren’t easy for me - like filling out a tax form (I admit that that special kind of work I don’t like!) or writing a good text to go with the photo.
23 Jessica Mariko // May 29, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Something is “hard work” when I have any kind of resistance towards it.
Things are usually not “hard work” when I feel motivation, passsion, creativity and love.
24 Pamela Slim // May 29, 2008 at 1:05 pm
When I hear the term “hard work,” I tend to think of it in the way that Barbara mentioned above — requires lots of mental and physical exertion, but is extremely rewarding. Things like the final push on a big project, cleaning out the garage, doing a marathon workout fall in this bucket.
I love to re-arrange furniture and move mattresses, so call me anytime you need a hand.
Chris Brogan’s version of “hard” hits home too — doing the things that I know are best in the long run for life/career, but that require new thinking or changing behavior can be very challenging.
“Yuck bucket work” is how I refer to those things that I don’t like to do under any circumstances, like accounting, taxes or analyzing tons of data. I am with Laura that those are prime things to outsource, as they are not made better (in fact probably much worse) by having me in the middle of them.
25 Rob Kendrick // May 29, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I personally define hard work as anything which requires me to go outside the normal bounds of my knowledge or physical capacity for any extended period of time.
For instance, lifting your mattress to put on a new bedskirt isn’t hard work, because it’s relatively quick. Moving the mattress to another room could be considered hard work, because the mattress is large, heavy, and unwieldy.
In the same light, doing taxes on Turbotax isn’t hard work, but trying to keep track of paper forms is, thanks to research.
As always, it’s a matter of perspective, and will vary from person to person.
Take care,
Rob
26 K // May 29, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Hard work is anything I don’t like or want to do.
Or sometimes doing something that involves a lot of exertion that I normally wouldn’t mind but at that moment I’d rather spend the energy elsewhere.
Or even something I enjoy that’s labor intensive enough (mental or physical) that it leaves me to some degree drained, even if I’m glad or even actively enjoyed how I spent the energy. (For example, toddler wrangling can be a great deal of fun, but the little buggers are exhausting.)
27 Doug Telford // May 31, 2008 at 7:15 am
Hard work is the drugery of working without passion. There is no dream, no feeling of making a difference in the world. It includes a feeling of being forced to do it, locked in with no other option. We need a sense of purpose to avoid making the work feel Hard.
28 Chris Nadeau // Jun 6, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I think the phrase hard work was meaningful during the manual economy. Those days are pretty much long gone. Some people confuse working hard with working long hours.
I wrote about this back in September and I refer to a great post by Seth Godin, that I think hits home about todays “hard work”
http://theperfectbalance.blogspot.com/2007/09/are-you-working-hard-or-hardly-working.html
29 steve // Jun 7, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Hey, Stever,
Quite the discussion you’ve spawned. Methinks thou dost have a chapter in the making - or at least a “contextual” introduction - to a book on doing more/working less!
Great!
Steve
30 Bill Fulkerson // Jul 8, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Stever …
To me, hard work is poorly defined. It may be overly constrained to the point that the result is specified in the assignment.
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