The 4 categories of work
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Not all work is created equal. Some tasks drive greater value than others. Some tasks bring greater joy than others. In my work life, I've distilled all the different work I do into 4 categories:
1. Proactive work. Building lasting solutions to problems. A solution that addresses this instance of the problem, and future instances of the problem. Examples include feature development, automation scripts, & writing tests. And in some cases, can also include documentation, goal-setting, & strategizing.
2. Toil. Manually solving problems which frequently occur. This type of work can often feel like a "grind", when consuming much of your time & energy. Examples include manual server upgrades, manual data migrations, manual data entry, or responding to frequently asked questions.
3. Unplanned work. A task you receive which must be completed within the next ~48hrs. Examples include a customer request, a bug, or a production incident.
4. Meetings. No explanation needed here.
For me, the goal is to maximize time spent on proactive work, and minimize time spent on non-proactive work. Keep in mind that there will always exist some toil, unplanned work, & meetings which are valuable. But generally speaking, the goal is to solve the non-proactive work through proactive solutions (e.g. automation, communication standards).
This post was heavily influenced by the definitions within these books: