I can sit at my desk all day, respond to emails, check items off my to-do list, and feel really productive – even though these administrative-type tasks rarely move the needle.

Alternatively, I can spend time casually catching-up with past customers, put my feet up on the desk to think strategically, and end the day without any single thing that I can point to as an outcome from my day of work.

On the way home after the first day, I tend to feel good about myself. I can point to a long list of things that I completed, and I can justify the time I spent in the office as “work.”

Not so much after the second type of day.

I get home, behind on emails and other administrative tasks, and I question whether anything that I did actually matters.

The first type of day obviously feels a lot better, so it’s natural to gravitate towards this type of work. But for the role I’m in (and the creative type roles that we’ll all tend to gravitate towards as machine learning and automation continues to develop) the second day is much more valuable.

It’s abstract and emotionally taxing, but it’s the type of labor that moves the needle.

That’s not to say that the emails and administrative tasks can be ignored or eliminated altogether, but if we don’t take a step back and occasionally take some actions that don’t have an obvious outcome and completion date, we miss out on the most important type of work we can do.

-Brandon