Meaningful work

Have you ever noticed how some work leaves you feeling like you’ve just finished a marathon, while other tasks energise you as if you’ve had the most refreshing night’s sleep? That’s not just coincidence—it’s your internal compass pointing towards what truly matters.

The 80/20 rule of joy

We’ve all heard of the Pareto Principle: 20% of our efforts generate 80% of our results. But let’s talk about something more personal—the joy-to-effort ratio. What if I told you that 20% of your activities generates 80% of your happiness and fulfilment?

For me, that sweet spot lies in creative work such as photography and writing. When I’m out on the streets with my camera, chasing the perfect interplay of light and shadow, or at my desk crafting words that capture fleeting thoughts, time seems to flow differently. Hours pass like minutes, and the energy I put in multiplies into something greater than itself, like a garden where every hour spent nurturing yields days of blooming beauty. In this state of flow, I’m so immersed in the rewarding work that the outside world fades away.

This state of flow, where you’re completely absorbed in meaningful work, is like meditation in motion. Your mind quiets, your focus sharpens, and you operate at your peak. I experience this when I’m framing a street photograph or when words flow effortlessly onto the page. It’s not just about losing track of time—it’s about finding yourself in the work, about being so perfectly aligned with your task that everything else falls away.

This kind of deeply satisfying work is like finding your favourite comfort food—once you discover it, you wonder how you lived without it for so long. That thing that makes your heart sing becomes an essential part of your life’s melody.

The currency of time

Think of your daily hours as money in your wallet. Every morning, you wake up with 24 fresh hours to spend. Unlike money, though, you can’t save these hours for tomorrow or earn them back once they’re gone. They’re spent, whether you choose how to spend them or not. Each hour passes, like coins slipping through your fingers, never to be recovered.

Yet many of us start our days mindlessly scrolling through feeds or responding to other people’s urgencies. These precious morning hours—when our minds are freshest and our creativity at its peak—are irreplaceable, like spending your last dollar on someone else’s coffee when you haven’t eaten all day.

As a former pharmacist, hospital work taught me that time is literally a matter of life and death. Every minute spent on non-essential tasks could be a minute too late for someone who needs urgent care. I’ve seen how split-second decisions and focused attention can make the difference between life and death. The same urgency, though in a different context, applies to our creative lives—every hour spent on meaningless work is an hour of potential creativity lost forever.

Your daily creative wellspring

Your creative energy is like a natural spring that replenishes overnight. Each morning, you wake up with a fresh pool of creativity. Unlike a spring, though, you can’t store this energy for later use—it either flows into meaningful work, or it seeps away into the ground of mundane tasks.

Research shows that most people have about 4-5 hours of deep, creative work in them per day. I’ve found this to be true in my transition from pharmacy to creative work. While I could work 12-hour shifts as a pharmacist, my truly creative hours are much more limited. That’s roughly 1,500 precious hours per year of peak creative potential. In a lifespan of 80 years, starting from age 20, that’s about 90,000 hours of potential creative time.

When I realised this finite nature of creative energy, it transformed how I approached my daily schedule. Every hour spent on mindless tasks is one less hour from this limited pool of creative potential.

Practical steps to maximise meaningful work

1. Track your energy patterns Keep a simple log of when you feel most energetic and which activities make the hours melt away. You might discover that your creative peak hits at dawn when the world is still quiet, or perhaps you come alive when the rest of the world goes to sleep.

2. Identify your value generators Look at your work through the lens of both joy and impact. Which activities make you lose track of time while also creating something valuable? These are your essential tasks—the ones worth protecting with your life, because they are, quite literally, what you’re spending your life on.

3. Restructure your day Once you know your high-value activities and energy patterns, rebuild your schedule around them. For me, that means no emails until I’ve done at least two hours of creative work in the morning. Think of it as eating your favourite dish first while it’s hot, rather than letting it go cold while you fill up on sides.

4. Create boundaries Protect your creative time like you would protect your sleep. You wouldn’t let someone wake you up every 30 minutes throughout the night, so why let notifications and interruptions fragment your creative time?

The long game of life

Here’s a sobering thought: if you’re 30 years old, you have about 18,250 days left to live, assuming you reach 80. That’s 18,250 mornings to create something meaningful. Each day spent on work that doesn’t matter is one less day you have to make your mark on the world.

Memento mori—remember you must die. Not as a morbid thought, but as a clarifying force to help you focus on what truly matters.

As someone who made the leap from a stable career in healthcare to the uncertain waters of creative entrepreneurship, I can tell you that understanding what work truly matters isn’t just about career satisfaction—it’s about making your finite time count.

The goal isn’t to eliminate all routine tasks—they’re part of life, like breathing. Instead, it’s about ensuring they don’t steal the best parts of your day from the work that truly matters. After all, you wouldn’t spend your last day on Earth clearing your email inbox, would you?

What’s your 20%? What work makes you lose track of time while creating real value? Share your thoughts in the comments below—I’d love to hear about your journey towards finding meaningful work. Remember, every day you spend doing work that matters is a day well lived.