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.

The most challenging environment to blog in?


Well, I’m not sure my environment today counts as the most challenging, but it has been trying!

I’m currently returning from holiday on an EasyJet flight and I’m surrounded by young kids, including in the seat right next to me and 3 hours in and the kids have reached the ‘are we there yet?’ stage.

When I land, I’m heading home to shower, change bags, pickup up some work stuff and heading straight back to the airport to head to Berlin to co-facilitate a workshop.

So now is the only time to write on a noisy plane, at 35,000 feet and on my iPhone.

Ok, so typing hanging one handed from a cliff in a gale might be harder.

The point is if you set your mind to it you can work in distracting places and if you use your time wisely you can always get stuff done.