Shallow work
Administrative or reactive work that needs no deep thinking and can be done in fragments of time, a modern productivity concept contrasted with Deep Work.
Shallow work is administrative or reactive work that does not require deep thinking and can be handled even in fragments of time. It is a concept Cal Newport proposed in “Deep Work” (2016) in contrast with deep work, and it includes replying to email, attending meetings, checking Slack, and simple confirmation tasks. Shallow work itself is not bad, but when “days that end with only shallow work” increase in a knowledge worker’s schedule, essential output stops being produced.
How shallow work differs from deep work
| Item | Shallow work | Deep work |
|---|---|---|
| Cognitive load | Low | High |
| Tolerance for interruption | Strong (easy to resume) | Weak (takes time to recover) |
| Replaceability | Anyone can do it | Only that person can do it |
| Rarity of the output | Low | High |
| Economic value | Low | High |
Concrete examples of shallow work
The right allocation of shallow work
In his book “Deep Work,” Newport recommends deciding in advance a budget for the share of working hours spent on shallow work. In reality, work easily drifts toward a style where shallow work takes up most of the day, and unless you set a budget, time for Deep Work does not naturally remain.
Practices that reduce shallow work
- Fix email / Slack checks at 3 times a day (stop being “always on”)
- Ask yourself each time, “Is this work only I can do?”
- Gather shallow work into a dedicated 1-2 hours a day
- Cut reflexive “let’s just call a meeting” habits
- Turn routine work into templates / automate it
How shallow work relates to meetings
Many meetings have become shallow work for their participants. By reviewing them with a combination of meeting cost calculation and optimizing recurring meetings, you can cut meetings that have turned into shallow work. Raising the remaining meetings to a quality closer to deep work links directly to higher organizational productivity.
The danger of shallow work lies in “the sense of fulfillment”
Shallow work itself is necessary work and cannot be eliminated. What is dangerous is that a day of continually reacting to notifications produces a sense of fulfillment from “having worked hard.” Because this sense of fulfillment comes regardless of whether anything was produced, a shallow-work-centered way of working becomes fixed before you notice. The habit of looking back at the end of the day on “how many minutes I spent today on work only I can do” is the simplest countermeasure to this illusion.