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.

Tuesdays


Without a plan, Tuesday is just another day in the week to meander through. 

It’s a better day than Monday where many are in jobs that mean they hate that day. 

Tuesday is not as good as Wednesday, which is halfway to the weekend. 

Most people drift through the week living for the weekend. 

It’s an easy routine to fall into. 

If that’s you, then work out how many more weeks you have left in a lifetime. 

Then work out how many weeks you’ve drifted through so far. 

Now realise that you’ll soon burn through the rest of your weeks waiting for the weekend. 

Make a plan, a simple plan. One that involves just doing one thing different next Tuesday. 

Then see what happens when next Tuesday comes and you do that one different thing? 

Then perhaps you could plan to do one different thing every single day. 
By adding one day each week where you plan to do something new. 

Soon youlll be doing 5 new things every week. 

Wow no longer waiting for the weekend, no more Tuesdays being a day slightly better than Monday and slightly worse than Wednesday.