Don't Box Yourself In
The Field Review: TFR-053
This week, I logged 49.5 billable hours on client deliverables. That doesn’t include internal meetings, emails, or general job upkeep. If you added it all up, it was probably closer to 60.
Now, before you come for me with “that’s not that many hours,” I know there are plenty of people out there who worked harder than me this week. But I’m not an entrepreneur or a founder. I don’t work in emergency services or healthcare. In the corporate world I operate in, this was a heavy week.
And when you step back and look at my calendar, it shows.
A clean, color-coded block schedule can be satisfying until you realize you’ve built yourself somewhat of a cage.
Structure can start narrowing how you think, what you believe you're capable of, and what kind of work you’re allowed to do.
I’m not a creative by title, but I’d argue that strategy is a creative function.
As a strategist, my primary function is solving problems that don’t have obvious answers. You’re expected to deliver fresh thinking, new angles, insights people haven’t seen yet.
That kind of work doesn’t usually fit neatly into a clean cut 30-minute blocks.
You need space.
You need input.
You need time to think before you're expected to present.
Creativity, whether it’s strategy, design, writing, or something else, can’t always be scheduled like a meeting despite our best efforts to templatize it.
You can’t (or at least I don’t) just copy and paste what worked last time and hope it lands again this time. The market changes. People change.
Good strategy requires original thinking. You have to bring new ideas to old problems, and no two projects or clients are ever the same. And when your calendar is stacked from top to bottom, you don’t just lose time. You lose the ability to think clearly and originally.
That’s when the work starts getting flat. You’re still doing your job, but you’re no longer bringing anything new to it. You’re just repeating, and hoping for halfway decent results.
“That’s Not My Job.” But it could be.
I’m not at all worried about the number of hours I worked this week. But I have seen how the number of hours worked can start to limit what people think they can or can’t do.
When your schedule is full from the moment you wake up, it’s easy to start building a narrower view of your role as the structure of your day starts to shape the structure of your thinking. People stop asking if something is possible and start assuming it isn’t.
I personally have never been one to say, “That’s not my job.”
If there’s something I want to do or think I can contribute to, I’ll find a way to step into it. And to this day, I’ve never been punished for that. In fact, it’s usually the opposite.
I don’t believe in boxing yourself in based solely on a title or a job description. If something sparks your interest or feels like a chance to grow, don’t wait for permission.
If you don’t want to do something, that’s one thing. But if the only reason you’re not doing it is because it’s not “your lane,” maybe it’s time to build a wider road.
Most of the time, no one’s enforcing the boundaries you think are there, and the longer you live inside the box, the harder it gets to remember what life looks like outside of it.
The risk isn’t just burnout, it’s erosion. Of curiosity. Of confidence. Of the parts of your work that used to feel energizing instead of draining.
So don’t wait until you’ve run out of energy or interest. Start noticing where the edges are. What you’ve convinced yourself you’re not allowed to do. What you’ve boxed yourself out of because it didn’t fit into your schedule.
If you’re feeling limited, ask yourself who drew the lines.
You might realize no one’s holding you in that box but you.
From My Desk:
What I’m Thinking/ Doing: The deck project is complete. The stumps have been cut out. The trees have been planted. All that’s left is grass seed and mulch. Semi-retirement from my exterior general contractor side hustle is in the forseeable future.
My next side hustle as a semi-professional golfer is on the horizon.
On Deck for Monday: It’s hard for me to think that next week could possibly be any busier than this past week, and I’m not mad about it. Still have a full schedule to look forward to, but hoping for some more empty blocks in my calendar to take in new information, new ideas and replenish my strategic creativity.
From The Field Review Archives:
The Field Review is a space for exploring the intersection of work, life, and the great outdoors. It’s about figuring ‘it’ out—whatever your ‘it’ might be.
Every Sunday at 10AM EST, I share ideas, insights, and conversations that help break through the noise, offering a real look at how we can all keep moving forward.
If you have any thoughts, questions, or topics you'd like me to explore in future newsletters, feel free to reach out!
Venture Onward,
Jack
Great Sunday read! Thanks, Jack.