# Do More Great Work ![[Assets/ea3a4b0db3d343714e43b3a6f9da4aa2_MD5.jpg]] ## Metadata - Author: [[Michael Bungay Stanier]] - Full Title: Do More Great Work - Category: #books ## Highlights - His book Art is Work is mainly a collection of his design work, but he opens it with a curious and powerful insight. He says everything we do falls into three basic categories: Bad Work • Good Work • Great Work. ([Location 107](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B003HMOW8E&location=107)) - Bad Work is a waste of time, energy, and life. Doing it once is one time too many. This is not something to be polite about. It’s not something to be resigned to. This is work that is pointless. Sadly, organizations have a gift for generating Bad Work. It shows up as bureaucracy, interminable meetings, outdated processes that waste everyone’s time, and other ways of doing things that squelch you rather than help you grow. ([Location 112](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B003HMOW8E&location=112)) - Good Work is the familiar, useful, productive work you do—and you likely do it well. You probably spend most of your time on Good Work, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Good Work blossoms from your training, your ([Location 117](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B003HMOW8E&location=117)) - education, and the path you’ve traveled so far. All in all, it’s a source of comfort, nourishment, and success. There’s a range of Good Work: At one end it’s engaging and interesting work; at the other, it is more mundane but you recognize its necessity and are happy enough to spend some time doing it. You always need Good Work in your life. At an organizational level, Good Work is vital. It is a company’s bread and butter—the efficient, focused, profitable work that delivers next quarter’s returns. ([Location 118](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B003HMOW8E&location=118)) - Great Work is what we all want more of. This is the work that is meaningful to you, that has an impact and makes a difference. It inspires, stretches, and provokes. Great Work is the work that matters. It is a source of both deep comfort and engagement—often you feel as if you’re in the “flow zone,” where time stands still and you’re working at your best, effortlessly. The comfort comes from its connection, its “sight line,” to what is most meaningful to you—not only your core values, and beliefs, but also your aspirations and hopes for the impact you want to have on the world. But Great Work is also a place of uncertainty and discomfort. The discomfort arises because the work is often new and challenging, and so there’s an element of risk and possible failure. Because this is work that matters, work that you care about, you don’t want it to fail. But because it’s new and challenging, there’s a chance that it might. For organizations, Great Work drives strategic difference, innovation, and longevity. Often it’s the kind of inventive work that pushes business forward, that leads to new products, more efficient ([Location 124](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B003HMOW8E&location=124)) - Life is the sum of all your choices. ALBERT CAMUS ([Location 347](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B003HMOW8E&location=347))