Deep work sounds nice: being able to sit and focus and do difficult work over a longer period of time.

But that isn’t my life right now. And while deep work can be useful, humans really don’t work that way very often. Parenting, for example, is never deep work, and is one of the most important things we do.

We usually have lots of things going on in our life. Even in careers and jobs, people juggle multiple projects. I get bored if I just do one thing. I prefer switching focus.

I can sit and get really good and important work done in just a few minutes. If I’m worried about figuring out how to set aside hours at a time to work on something, then sometimes I keep procrastinating over and over again and I don’t do any work at all.

If I get too narrow-minded, I might miss opportunities that are in front of me. If I am always trying to focus, I might miss interruptions that are more important than my projects.

So I don’t think deep work is really necessary for life. There are good moments when you can focus and get into a good flow, but more often than not, my life feels like a constant distraction, and that’s okay.

(Thanks to my sister, Liz, because this was her idea.)