Tuning your work to your natural working style

Let’s have a quick coffee meeting to discuss things over? It was the third time this project manager pinged me in three days to discuss things that didn’t need any ‘discussing’. 😒

This was from my early work days as a technical writer. It was my first time working with this manager, and I was already annoyed with her working style. I was immersed in writing a long document due by the end of the week, but her frequent interruptions constantly broke my focus.

Finally, I had to speak up. I told her that these unnecessary meetings were slowing me down. She was surprised, explaining that she thought she was trying to help.

I didn’t know at that time, but she was indeed, in her working style, trying to help. Just that her working style was entirely different from mine.

Manager versus maker mode

There are two kinds of working styles: Manager mode and maker mode.

Managers work in short intervals, jumping from one meeting to another, making quick decisions, putting out one fire, and jumping into the next one.

They get ten things done in a day.

Makers, on the other hand, work in long, uninterrupted sessions. They don’t jump tasks. They do one thing a day, but it requires focus and creative energy.

Writers, designers, programmers—anyone who has to concentrate for hours to get one job done—is a maker.

It’s important to understand the distinction between the two to pick the one right for us. Both have different characteristics:

Love meetings, hate meetings

Managers love meetings. That’s how they work. That’s where they connect with others, update themselves on what’s going on, and what’s missing. Meetings are where they make decisions, discover new opportunities, and plan things.

Every meeting moves them forward. ⏭️

Although they occasionally switch to maker mode, such as when creating reports or evaluating progress, this takes up only a small fraction of their time. Most of their time goes into meetings, and they love them!

Makers hate meetings.

Meetings disrupt their creative flow. Meetings are not part of their workflow; they are interruptions.

Every meeting sends them a few steps back. ⏮️

Deep work is their core work. Although they need to take time out for meetings, that’s a tiny fraction of their workflow.

So who’s the boss?

The general perception is that as you grow in your profession, you’ll be working more and more in manager mode and less in maker mode.

This used to be true traditionally. Even now, it’s true in the traditional corporate world. Individual contributors get paid less because of fewer responsibilities, although those few responsibilities play a big role in the company’s success.

Things are changing. Many modern companies have a flat hierarchy. Lean startups have small teams with no managers. Million-dollar startups are built with a designer and a coder.

Sam Altman, founder of Open AI, recently said that it will be possible for one person to run a billion-dollar company!

So if one person needs to run a company, does she need to double down as a manager and a maker?

You can’t survive doing either. Most people need to juggle between the maker and manager modes. More so for solopreneurs.

Here are some strategies to rescue:

Not fragmenting creative blocks

One thing is certain: interrupting maker mode with any manager-related task, however small, can derail productivity for hours.

I read about a senior programmer who struggled to have a productive week because he rarely got more than two uninterrupted hours of coding. With meetings scattered throughout the day, his deep work sessions were constantly disrupted. If he could have scheduled all his meetings at the end of the day, he could have dedicated the rest of his time to focused work.

Morning maker, afternoon manager

David Perell, a prolific writer, spends 90 mins writing soon after waking up every morning. He spends his afternoons connecting with his writing academy writers and on social media.

Others block long hours at night for deep work.

“When we were working on our own startup back in the 90s, I evolved another trick for partitioning the day. I used to program from dinner till about 3 a.m. every day because, at night, no one could interrupt me. Then I’d sleep till about 11 a.m., and come in and work until dinner on what I called “business stuff.” I never thought of it in these terms, but in effect, I had two workdays each day: one on the manager’s schedule and one on the maker’s.”
— Paul Graham

You can choose either but the idea is to get long, uninterrupted sessions for thinking work.

Exclusive Days

If you prefer focusing on one type of work per day, block certain days as maker days and others as manager days. If you have flexibility, decide in the morning. For example, today could be a maker day to finish that article or a manager day to connect with clients.

Adam Grant, author, and professor, takes this further, dedicating entire seasons to each mode. He teaches in the fall and switches to maker mode for research in the spring and summer.

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Are you more of a maker or manager?

Have a 1:1 with yourself

Is your work aligned with your natural working style?

If you thrive on deep, uninterrupted work, does your schedule allow it? Have you blocked time for focused tasks?

If you juggle both modes, have you separated maker and manager tasks to different times or days to avoid conflicts?

The worst scenario is working against your natural style. If you love quick decisions and interactions but are stuck with solitary tasks, you won’t enjoy it. Conversely, if you’re a maker but can’t engage in deep work, you’ll be dissatisfied.

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How we spend our days impacts our happiness. Working in our natural style not only makes us happier but also improves our output, making the world a better place. ❤️