Is the meta work worth it?

One of the big challenges of productivity is determining what meta work (the work around your work) is worth your time. For me, a big one is playing with productivity tools; while I might find some gains in new tools, I also tend to spend a lot of time tinkering with them. I internally consider this a mild form of entertainment as a way to justify it, but it’s likely not worth the time I put in.

Two other big ones stand out, and I have opposing stances on them.

Time tracking

With many creative agencies, the question of “time tracking or not” is a big one. For us, we’re going with “not”. The data gleaned from time tracking can be fantastic, but the effort of tracking that time can be a killer.

That said, I have two exceptions:

1. Occasionally we’ll track time on a specific project just to make sure that we’re in the range that we expect. The challenge is that if we’re not in the habit of tracking, much of the time can slip through.
2. I’ll sometimes track my time for a few days, like I shared in this example. It can be helpful to see where my time really goes.

Overall, though, I consider time tracking to be meta work that isn’t worth the effort.

Notes

This post came to mind when I saw this list of “The Top 20 Business Books” as compiled by Jason and Julie at Blumer CPAs. My initial thought was to add it to Obsidian to have as a reference for future books to read. Most of the books were already in my system (some read, some not), but there were a few new ones. All told, I spent about 15 minutes going through and adding the new ones and then marking them up with a bit more data for future sorting (author name, book length, tagline, etc).

This was a bit of meta work that may or may not be worth the effort.

As a general rule, I add every book that I come across into Obsidian, as I find increasing value in that over time. In the case of lists like this, it gives me another data point on most of those books (yet another reason to read them or not), as well as giving me a few more books in the list. I could be more discerning, but it’s easier just to add them all instead of thinking “well, should I add this one, or maybe not, or I guess I should…“, similar to how I handle my contact list.

This is meta work that most people choose not to do, but I find it valuable over time. Months from now when I’m looking for a book to read, these are in my system along with the note of why it’s in there (“From the list that Jason and Julie published”). I find that valuable, but you may find it to be too time-consuming to do that.

We both may be right.

When it comes to this kind of stuff, there is no perfect answer. I know other agencies that track their time and do a fantastic job of it, and I know people that read far more than I do without an elaborate note-taking system. There’s no one answer, but it’s always wise to be considering whether the meta work is worth your time, or if you should skip it and just get down to the real work instead.