Schedules & schedules

The type of work should determine how one’s day of work looks like. There are fields where focused work is productive work, and there are fields where relational and networking work is productive work.

Managers fall mostly in the second category. By their position, as interface elements in the organization they are supposed communicate and work more with other people to produce decisions and steer the makers. This is why their schedule takes most times the form of a string of meetings.

This should not be the case for contributors, builders, those how make the product become a thing, who aim to have focused work. These kind of roles, the makers, the individual contributors, should have time for focused work. Many times I hear that they are dragged into meetings, and this makes one wonder what work is like. It begs the question if collaboration in any format is should not be associated with work.

Collaboration is work, and if collaboration takes the format of a meeting, than, it is what it is.

These two pieces triggered me to write this piece:

http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html

https://blog.nuclino.com/makers-don-t-let-yourself-be-forced-into-the-manager-schedule