There is the work you love to do.
The work that you have to do.
And the work that you need to do.
There are all different layers of work that you have to get done in a day, week, or month.
The work you love to do might be to dig that hole in the backyard. No one is asking for it, but who doesn’t love to dig a hole?
The work you have to do is what you are being asked to do for your job; this is what pays the bills and puts food on the table.
The work you need to do is the work for you; it might not pay much today, but maybe in the future it will. This is the future investment work – the blogging, the article writing, the training, the ideas that may or may not pan out. This work is not as much fun as the work you love to do; there might be some intersection, but this is where ideas become execution, and execution is laborious.
The point of knowing your Layers of Work is knowing where to play each new task you take on and whether it’s worth adding to your pile.
