Why work overload is overrated

Do you know what you need to do deep work? To do meaningful work. To to do your best work?

Large blocks of uninterrupted time and an environment that encourages focus. But these are rare creatures in the work-life jungle because their natural predators are everywhere.

I’ve never been a fan of too many meetings, e-mails & Slack channels. But there are many days when my resistance fails and I allow the corporate river to just drag me along.

Listening to Jason Fried on the Peter Attia Drive podcast yesterday has reinforced my convictions tenfold. He has such a way of explaining complex dynamics in a simple way.

So I’m not giving up the fight. In fact, I’m inspired. In addition to keeping an eye on meeting, e-mail and chat overloads I also want to try bringing in more long form writing into the culture in my division.

Base Camp has released a bunch of books all worth their weight in gold. I read Rework by Jason & DHH and just started Shape Up by Ryan Singer. The next one on my list is It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy At Work.

"A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention." — Herbert Simon

Say no to overload!

Let’s not have meetings that should be e-mails. Let’s not send e-mails that should be a 2-minute phone call. Let’s not start new work until we finish existing work.