How to Work Hard
Working hard is a key component of doing great things - it's an obvious statement but true nonetheless.
While successful people are known for their apparent natural ability, a deeper look behind the scenes from those who have watched their evolution usually points to an undying work ethic.
Take Kobe Bryant and his oft-used phrase - the 'Mamba Mentality' as an example. Despite his obvious talents, his book goes into detail as to how hard he worked vs. his contemporaries (current and former).
This blog post by Paul Graham goes into how to work hard and brings up a few points that don't get talked about enough.
The Influence of School
Unfortunately, school (outside of sports) is not a place where you learn how to work hard in the real world. You're rarely encouraged (sometimes discouraged) to spend countless hours working on your craft (vs. meeting arbitrary milestones across a variety of subjects).
You're also not encouraged to push on the quality of work to make it world-class. Kids are led to believe that adequate is acceptable and rewarded. The reality is that the bar for your quality of work continues to go up through competition and technological advancements.
Being Honest With Yourself
"You have to notice when you're being lazy and when you're working too hard." Only you will know the answer to whether you can push yourself to do better or if you're working for the sake of showing off.
There will be days where your time is spent doing 'core work' where you're truly solving the problem and 'peripheral work' where you're working on related activities that may not move the needle as much. It's a delicate balance as you'll often need to do both - however, the key is to push yourself to maximize on core work when possible.
The key through all this is to be self-aware and not lie to yourself.
Knowing When to Try Something New
Some of us are fortunate to match our skills and interests fairly early on - others may not be as lucky. While you may continue to put in the effort, there is usually a feeling of inevitability where you feel like you're hopelessly spinning vs. making progress.
The common solution to this dilemma is to try something new - ideally an area that you're interested in. I think this answer is a bit too vague and can cause people to waste their time trying to identify what they could be interested in.
I think a better process is to continuously double down on areas that you find interesting while actively avoiding tasks that you don't find interesting. This isn't to say that you should drop anything that you don't find interesting in a way that impacts your reputation. However, you can often do a better job of communicating your interests and make sure that you work on tasks that interest you vs. working for the benefit of others.
If you don't have the time to read through the essay, the following excerpt sums it up quite well:
"Working hard is not just a dial you turn up to 11. It's a complicated, dynamic system that has to be tuned just right at each point. You have to understand the shape of real work, see clearly what kind you're best suited for, aim as close to the true core of it as you can, accurately judge at each moment both what you're capable of and how you're doing, and put in as many hours each day as you can without harming the quality of the result. This network is too complicated to trick. But if you're consistently honest and clear-sighted, it will automatically assume an optimal shape, and you'll be productive in a way few people are."