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On Doing Your Life’s Work
Peter Drucker, the renowned management thinker who first coined the term ‘knowledge worker’ perfectly summarized the problem of focus in work:
Most discussions of the executive’s task start with the advice to plan one’s work. This sounds eminently plausible. The only thing wrong with it is that it rarely works. The plans always remain on paper, always remain good intentions. They seldom turn into achievement.
Effective executives, in my observation, do not start with their tasks. They start with their time. And they do not start out with planning. They start by finding out where their time actually goes.[1]
Drucker’s advice to the busy executive is true for us all. We all have good intentions about getting work done. But we rarely stick to them. Instead, distractions eat away at our time, until there is none left.
In my previous lesson, I articulated the need for a philosophy of focus. We need to choose what is worth paying attention to. But this is just the easy part. For without a system for focus, such intentions are just daydreams.
A key element of this system is keeping track of deep work. Knowing where your time goes, as Drucker notes, is an essential first step to taking control over it.
