Work ethics

Jeremy wrote a great piece about how we treat our work:

Here’s the thing: there’s good work and there’s working hard. What matters is doing good work. Often, to do good work you need to work hard. And so people naturally conflate the two, thinking that what matters is working hard. But whether you work hard or not isn’t actually what’s important. What’s important is that you do good work.

I wonder how many of us are constructing little monuments in our inboxes and calendars, filling those spaces with work to be done in an attempt to chase the rewards we’ve been told will result from hard graft.

I know someone, a friend of a friend, whose calendar is always jam-packed. Meetings upon meetings, work upon work, and this certain someone brags about all the work that they do on the weekends, too. They see themselves as extremely successful but I don’t! I don’t believe that you need to be frantic and stressed to lead a productive life.

Lately I’ve tried to, as Jeremy writes, focus on the outcomes of great work done more so than the byproducts of busywork.