Hey :)
In the last post, I was thinking out loud about the quality and value of the work you choose to do — how moving closer to strategy and decisions tends to increase leverage over time.
There’s a third piece to this that feels very practical, and very unglamorous.
Even when you know what your highest-value work is, it takes a surprising amount of discipline to actually protect time for it.
Deep work is rarer than people think
One thing I’ve learned is that even with total control over my calendar, I still only get a limited amount of real, focused work done.
For example, if I look at yesterday, I had complete control over my day. No interruptions. No meetings I didn’t choose.
And I still only managed somewhere between three and four hours of genuinely deep work.
Today, I’ll probably get two.
Over a good week, I might get eight to ten hours of deep, uninterrupted focus.
That might sound like a lot to some people. And maybe it is. But the point is this:
Even in ideal conditions, deep work is scarce.
Which means it doesn’t happen accidentally.
The calendar doesn’t manage itself
If I want those two or three hours of focus, I have to work hard to make them possible.
It starts with being very deliberate about what goes on my calendar — and what doesn’t.
My default can’t be yes.
It has to be:
- maybe
- let me think about it
- let me look at the calendar
Not only because I’m precious about my time, but because I’m realistic about how little of it is actually high quality.
As I’m writing this, I already know exactly what I’m doing between 1pm and 3pm today. It’s a project that needs my full attention. It’s a priority. I know why it matters, and I know the impact it will have.
That work is going to get two uninterrupted hours of focus, and that’s enough.
It hasn’t happened by chance. It’s happened because I’ve planned for it.
Doing one thing at a time changes the quality of the work
There’s another side effect of this approach that’s easy to miss.
When you slow down enough to decide what you’re working on, and then only work on one thing at a time, the quality of the work changes.
You’re not context-switching.
You’re not half-present.
You’re not reacting in real time to everything else going on.
You’re not half-present.
You’re not reacting in real time to everything else going on.
And because the work is higher quality, it tends to have more impact — which then reinforces the trust people place in you.
That trust is what buys you more space to work this way in the future.
Leverage compounds when you document what you do
There’s also a longer-term benefit to working deliberately like this.
I’m currently working on a project where I already know that next time we do something similar, I’ll only be involved in about 20% of the work.
Not because the project matters less, but because I’ve documented everything I’ve done this time around.
That means the next version of this project might take me two hours instead of ten, with someone else handling the rest.
That’s eight hours I get back.
And those eight hours can go into something else — something more valuable, more strategic, or simply more aligned with where I’m needed next.
That’s how leverage quietly increases over time.
It’s less like a straight line and more like a spiral — each pass freeing up a little more capacity for better work.
Fewer things, done better
One of the things I’ve had to learn the hard way is that doing less isn’t a failure.
It’s often a sign that you’re getting clearer.
As your career progresses, what you say yes to should change. What only you can do should change. And the work that deserves your full attention should become more obvious.
That doesn’t mean you stop working hard.
It means you work deliberately.
In the next post, I want to zoom out again and think about the human side of all this — energy, health, rest, and the reality that you only get one brain and one body to do this work with.
That feels like an important part of doing good work for a long time.
🗣️ 👀
Chris.
Chris.