The 3 Modes of Work

Read time: 5 min

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Starting X in January, I thought it was a good idea to write 8 tweets a day.

And post all of them, even though I had no audience.

The problems?

Besides no engagement or growth (obviously),

I spent a lot of time trying to write the tweets themselves.

Without:

• the blue checkmark

• any clue about artistic writing (making it look good)

• any original ideas

The tweets were terrible. The writing looked terrible.

So much unnecessary time and energy wasted.

I reverse-engineered this, even though it took me a while.

What did I do wrong?

I didn’t understand the difference between the 3 Modes of work:

• deep

• shallow

• & creative

I tried to do everything at once, which led to nothing at all.

But, as I dare to say, I’m quite good at differentiating them now:

3 Modes of Work

Why are there different types of work?

Because there are different types of tasks.

Different in:

• challenge

• importance

• perceived effort

They require your brain to be in different states when working on them.

One thing is for sure.

You need all three of them as a creator.

1. Deep Work

You’ve heard of Deep Work before.

It’s when you enter a flow state while working, making you merge with the task at hand.

Benefits:

• unbelievable productivity

• you enter flow (making you feel superhuman)

“Negatives”:

• requires effort & preparation

• can (or should) only be done when scheduled

• very easily distracted and destroyed

Deep work is great for hard tasks.

For the important tasks.

Writing for example.

2. Shallow Work

Shallow work is the opposite of deep work.

It’s when you switch focus during work and don’t have to concentrate much.

Engaging on X, answering messages, emails, etc. → All shallow work.

It doesn’t require much effort.

And it’s sometimes unenjoyable.

But it has to be done.

3. Creative Work

Creative work is the weirdest one.

Creativity as a whole is a super complex process.

Benefits:

• original idea generation

• can do whenever you want to

Negatives:

• you can’t force creativity

Every moment of the day can be creative.

When that random idea pops up, that’s creativity.

Everything that has to do with idea generation, outlining, and even planning is creative work.

How to use these

As creators, we need to tap into every one of these work modes.

Probably daily.

So I’ll walk you through how to use all of these work modes.

Efficiently.

I’ll keep this one short.

I made an entire Flow State Guide you can check out here.

I do my deep work:

• fasted

• in the morning

• without distractions

That is deep work simplified.

You don’t have thoughts crossing your mind while you work.

How do you achieve this?

Through meditation, basically.

You concentrate on work → your mind wanders somewhere random → you realize it → you refocus back on work

Shallow work is the most boring of the 3.

Simultaneously, it is the most stressful.

What?

Think of common shallow work tasks:

• checking messages

• answering emails

• engaging on X

Now, you might think these are pretty easy to deal with, and they are.

They require low effort, but also:

Focus switching.

In the worst cases, even task switching.

Again, engaging on X is the prime focus-switching example:

You constantly look for dopamine, for the next post, the next person to follow, to DM etc.

While your inbox is blowing up with notifications.

The 2 differences between shallow and deep work are:

• level of focus

• dopamine release

What happens when you shallow work for too long?

You feel

• overworked

• tired

• unenergized

The side effects of a constant high dopamine state.

What can you do?

1. Schedule it

Your deep work session is what you’ll spend your morning time on (most likely).

I don’t know your schedule.

But, it would be best to dedicate a time block for your shallow work when the most important work of the day is already done.

There is another approach to shallow work, which I don’t like:

Doing it whenever.

Implying that you use your phone:

• to check messages

• to write a few comments here and there

• whatever else you have to do

all while doing something else, like being in uni/work or in the gym.

I hate that style of work.

If you have no other choice, fair enough.

Multitasking is stupid, but you gotta do what you gotta do in the end.

2. Set up a timer

Seeing a timer run down for your shallow work tasks is a game changer.

I take my Ipad.

I open up the clock app.

I think about how long I’ll need to do shallow work for.

I subtract ~25% of that time and start the timer.

Now it’s go time.

No time to waste.

That will get you working.

Creative work, as mentioned before, is the most complex.

In short:

You’re almost always in creative mode.

Your brain is strange.

It can come up with genius ideas:

• in the shower

• during walks or gym sessions

• during your shallow or deep work sessions

Basically whenever.

→ You can’t force creativity sessions.

You have to be prepared to be creative whenever you feel like it.

I brainstorm ideas, content, outlines, etc. when I feel like I’m in a creative mode.

These 3 basics helped me get more creative in general:

1. Let your mind think.

The less time you bombard it with stimulation, the more creative it gets.

This correlation undeniably exists.

What does this practically mean?

• stop listening to music

• stop being in front of screens 24/7

• turn off notifications, etc. on all your devices

The more you can do this, the more creative you will become.

2. Content consumption

This is how idea generation works in your brain:

Thought + Thought = New Connection (aka idea)

Your brain is constantly trying to make new connections to make sense of the world.

Original ideas are simply just repurposed thoughts of other people, which you give a new perspective.

Meaning, you have to consume other ideas first.

How?

Consume the right content:

• Long-form YouTube lecture videos

• Long-form reads (newsletters, books, articles)

These don’t overwhelm you with cheap dopamine.

They give you a plethora of ideas, thoughts and mindsets to let your brain play around with.

3. Note down ideas

This is non-negotiable (and for once, our phones turn useful)

You need to write down ideas whenever they come.

Not only to not forget them but to make space in your brain.

Always keep this in mind.

Your brain doesn’t want to serve as a library.

It wants to serve as an infinite idea-generation machine.

Which it can only do if you take notes of every idea you have, immediately.

I use my phone for this, because of simplicity.

I know people also like using a physical little notebook, you can try that out if you want to.

Thank you for reading!

Understanding that you have to differentiate between these work modes is Step 1 in getting more work done.

Never stop Improving!

~ Henri