Prioritize deep work over incremental improvement

Budding
Created: 2025-03-16 00:00:00 Updated: 2025-03-16 00:00:00

This resonated with me because I also struggle to make incremental improvements. My natural tendency is to work hard on projects that I'm deeply interested in, and then likely not touch them for a long time (if ever). But the knowledge that I gain from working deeply like this tends to be very useful in other projects, conversations, etc.

I have been trying to play to my strengths, and I think this is one of them. I could try to push myself into the incremental improvement box, like the habit-forming wisdom tends to say, but I would be unhappy and find myself working unhappily too often.

I'm lucky to work remotely, where there is no one to see how my productivity ebbs and flows in this way (except my wife). If I had a manager visibly checking on me all the time, they would likely think I was slacking off. But very likely I'm walking, thinking, reading, and then eventually I come back to deep mode and power out the work, on time.

Embrace Passionate Leaps

  • Instead of 1% improvements, aim for large leaps in progress (5%, 500%, or even 5000%) fueled by intense passion.
  • This approach allows for faster learning and deeper focus, also known as deep work.

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