As a programmer striving to do deep work, nothing captures the struggle in an eloquent yet visceral way than Paul Graham’s article on Maker vs Manager schedule.
Though unstructured meetings are a major visible obstacle, there is an equally pernicious one that needs the same visibility — The unstructured “work” flow; it is the rock and roll culture of plugging into multiple communication channels (emails, chat tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack etc.) for work allocation/communication.
The problem with this piece-meal approach:
- The need and expectation for availability across these communication channels to prioritise and get information for your work
- A reactive, fire-fighting work culture that lacks transparency and makes it harder to plan your focus work blocks
It doesn’t have to be this way — There are great tools, but much more than that; it is taking the time to understand the “work” flow for your company/project/team, a desire to experiment, and more importantly a conviction that it is worth in a longer run.
I hope that more managers (especially the ones in leadership) understand the subtleties of maker and manager’s schedule — not from an ego standpoint of which one is better, but more for the value, quality, and satisfaction it has to offer in a company’s culture.