Just Working Harder Won’t Get You Ahead. Working Smarter Will.<br />grandmasters) expended about 5,000 hours on serious study alone during their first decade of serious<br />chess play — nearly five times the average amount reported by intermediate-level players.”<br />But we’re not all aspiring grandmasters, so here’s a more real-world example: Just as the best chess players in the world get there through serious study, research has shown<br />that “structured reflection” of one’s performance has a positive impact on leadership development, according to a study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.<br />The part of the response that has stuck with me for years comes when the advice-giver refers to one of those people because he knows her personally: “You can be jealous of Mallory Ortberg,” the author, entrepreneur and current Dear Prudence columnist at Slate, “and that’s totally fair,<br />but like, she’s sweating her ass off on her work until her bountiful hair goes limp at least four nights a week.”<br />Even our idols who make success look effortless worked for every bit of it.<br />The strongest predictor of skill wasn’t simply time spent practicing; rather, it<br />was time spent in serious study: “Chess players at the highest skill level (i.e.<br />It’s Week 2 of resolutions month, and I’ve invited Kristin Wong, author of the personal finance book “Get Money”<br />and friend of SL, to give us some tips on sticking to our money resolutions.
