How I Actually Spend My Workday: Real Tools, Real Context Switching
Your calendar doesn’t tell the real story of how work gets done. Between Teams meetings, Outlook firefighting, LinkedIn rabbit holes, and that one WhatsApp video to your mom, there’s a rhythm to productive chaos that nobody talks about.
The Meeting Layer: Where Decisions Happen
Today started with a solid 24-minute Teams call reviewing projects with half the team—Moranne, Benny, Stav, Charles, and Amir all dialed in. This is the synchronous work that shapes everything else: decisions, blockers, priorities. The kind of meeting that actually matters because people are prepared and engaged. But it’s only one piece of the puzzle.
The Administrative Undercurrent: Calendar and Climate Control
While managing the meeting layer, there’s constant Outlook juggling—email triage, calendar management, even checking the weather in New York for what might be upcoming travel. This invisible work keeps the machine running. It’s not glamorous, but it’s the difference between chaos and intentional planning. Someone’s got to know it’s 18°C tomorrow.
The Personal Development Constant
Mid-morning, LinkedIn content about strength training gets queued up. Not procrastination—intentional learning. Alongside this, “Agentic Work” keeps appearing across Telegram and Outlook subject lines, signaling active research into emerging concepts. Wellness and skill development aren’t separate from work; they’re baked into the rhythm.
The Hidden Connective Tissue
Quick WhatsApp checks to Daph and Shelley. Brief team updates in Granola. Salesforce Lightning dashboard reviews for the Skilled Hunters Team. This is the distributed work that modern productivity actually requires—not one tool, not one mode, but fluidly moving between work systems, Teams, LinkedIn, and personal channels. The context-switching is the job now.
Here’s the truth: productivity isn’t about focus anymore. It’s about intentional context-switching, maintaining relationships while shipping work, learning while executing, and using the right tool for the right moment. Today was messy and effective at the same time—which is exactly how modern work should look.
— Devin
