Collective work

‘Collective Work 2.0’ by Philip Dodson

Once a week as part of the Deep Work Project I am developing, we all sit down for The Write Club, where 10-15 of us sit around a big table and collectively work. Some are writing books, some articles, some blogs, proposals, emails and so on. What you are writing does not matter.

The only communication we have over the 2 1/2 hour session of ‘deep work’ is at the start where we publically share to the group what we plan to work on and at the end how we progressed. So it is a distraction free environment.

The magic doesn’t happen just from the silent work we are individually doing without interruption, it comes almost strangely from the collective power of all doing focused work together at the same time.

The positive influence of being surrounded by other focused people is what keeps the momentum going, it is one of those things that are hard to express in words. The focus is transmitted, you feel a togetherness in your mission to stay in tune with meaningful work.

It is the magic of collective work that enables us to create our best work. You just need to set the tone and agenda to being focused.

Under pressure

‘I work best under pressure’ is a myth, closely related to the ‘multi-task’ myth.

We work best when we are focused, in flow, distraction free and with a calm mind and free from immediately looming deadlines.

The ‘under pressure’ part comes often from not having completed focused work, procrastination and bad planning.

The more we commit to doing regular focused work, the more we remove pressure and the better our work becomes.

Stress creates rushed work, cutting corners and compromising the best that we could do for just good enough.

Relieve pressure by calmly taking time to do the things that really matter in a distraction free space.

Only then can we hope to achieve the best that we are currently capable of.