Sublime

Once we understand the contours of our frustrations with knowledge work, we recognize that we have the potential to make these efforts not only massively more productive, but also massively more fulfilling and sustainable.

While the ego of a professional is built on making the job look hard, often the best results are achieved by doing very little. The best managers, for example, hire talented people and manage sparingly. As the need to pretend is removed, the best professionals often turn out to be those who don’t play the role at all.

There must be consequences for breaking agreements. Implementing these consequences is a two-part process. The first time someone doesn’t meet an agreement, you point it out to them immediately. If they apologize, you respond that apologies are not needed, and all that is required is that they only make agreements that they can commit to and that t

You can counter this habit by asking yourself five times a day, “Am I being productive or just going through the motions? Am I just inventing things to do to avoid my NRAs?”