# Overworking It By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2022-10-22 The work we perform follows two paths. One is the path to meaning. Here we discover purpose and meaning through the work we do. It helps us make sense of the suffering and our position within the world. The other path of work is a distraction. Here we overwork and climb the ladder without understanding the price. We work so hard that [[life]] passes by quickly and we rarely reflect on the point of it. Our time is valuable regardless of the path chosen, but the question is how do you want to spend that time. Note that the first path does not exclude the possibility of achieving great things in business. In fact, it may enable it in many ways. Overworking rarely leads to material gains not achieved by just a regular amount of work. Efficiently applying your time is a critical decision that requires deliberate thought, reflection, and execution. As the saying goes, work smarter, not harder. Perhaps it is not surprising that overworking has replaced overthinking as we are in [[The Age of Choice|an age that undervalues thinking]]. Instead of thinking, we keep busy by working. This serves Industrial Revolution-era employers very well. However, as emotional and intellectual labor takes the place of physical labor, we seem to have forgotten that thinking is more efficient than attempting to force the square peg into the round hole. A part of great analytics is thinking, exploration, and efficiently exploring a problem. It's easy to get trapped into overworking and brute forcing solutions to show the effort that is part of a bygone era of sweat equity. Is this work just a distraction? Do you have to play this game? Does the work help you find meaning? #### Related Items [[Thinking]] [[Work]] [[Analytics]] [[Purpose]] [[Management]]