The Types of Work
Types of Professional Work
Sahil Bloom in his recent podcast episode for The Curiosity Chronicle, explained the four times of professional work. I have slightly tweaked his framework for my own use, but you can find his original post here.
1. Admin – E.g. Meetings, Calls, Presentations, Emails
2. Creation – Writing, Coding, Building
3. Consumption – Reading, Studying
4. Ideation – Journalling, Brainstorming, Walking, Reflecting
Take your personal or professional schedule and assign each task to one of the sections of professional time. From here, you can assess which section of time you’re neglecting.
I concluded that my morning routine was well balanced, with a mixture of admin, consumption, and ideation through organising my meals for the upcoming days, listening to my morning podcasts, and then reflecting and journaling.
I then dive into my main task of the day, the creative time of my schedule. It was here that I realised I was asking too much of myself. There were always tasks I was missing, and they were always creative tasks I wished to pursue but didn’t have the time to. We have to carefully pick what creative endeavours we pursue. Less is better so we can ensure our creativity remains of a high quality. As a result of my cramming, many creative tasks have been removed from my schedule. I’m already finding I’m calmer with my time, I’m rushing less, and I have free time for when life inevitably gets in the way.
My evenings comprise of consumption, ideation, and a small amount of admin if necessary. But overall it’s time to decompress and relax. This is time for stillness with no expectations on us so we can recoup our energy to pursue tomorrow’s purpose!
This idealistic approach, as great as it sounds, isn’t usually how it unfolds. I’ll neglect admin in the morning and miss any ideation to dive straight into a creative task that I feel will take time. I’ll then lose interest in my creative task and take an early lunch. Once the day is derailed this badly, it’s difficult to get the train back on the tracks. I then make up for it later in the day or in the following days to make up for it. This makes me susceptible to overworking.
I’ll dive into overworking next week, but I guess the lesson of this is to cut yourself some slack and not ask too much of yourself. There may be countless things we wish to do today, but we can’t do them all. So choose the ones that you believe help the most for the purpose they serve relative to the time they spend. So if journalling helps your well-being massively, but it only takes 5 minutes, this is hugely effective at fulfilling its purpose as a task in your schedule.
Also, focus on what type of tasks you’re neglecting. Are you not consuming enough to grow? Or maybe you’re not creating enough to build yourself some alternative income streams. I believe we can all benefit from this exercise. Let me know if it benefits you in any way!