Things That Look Like Work But Aren't

I spent hours the other day reorganizing my digital files. Moved things into better folders, renamed documents with consistent naming conventions, cleaned up my desktop. It felt important and looked very professional when my wife walked by my office.

I accomplished absolutely nothing.

This is the curse of knowledge work: so much of what looks like legitimate work is actually just elaborate procrastination dressed up in business casual.

The Performance of Productivity

There’s a whole category of activities that have all the visual markers of being productive without actually producing anything useful. They’re not quite procrastination because they’re work-adjacent, but they’re not quite work because they don’t move anything forward.

The tricky part is that these activities often feel necessary and look impressive to observers. You’re clearly busy, you’re using professional tools, you’re thinking about work problems. But if you disappeared for a week, none of these activities would be missed.

The Classic Offenders

Endless Meeting Preparation Spending two hours preparing for a 30-minute meeting that could have been handled with a quick phone call. Making slides for an internal discussion. Writing detailed agendas for conversations that need to be spontaneous to be useful.

Email Archaeology Searching through months of old emails to find that one message that might be relevant to today’s problem. Reading every email in a thread to “get the full context” when the last two messages contain all the information you actually need.

Tool Optimization Theater Spending hours setting up the perfect productivity system, researching the best note-taking app, or configuring elaborate workflows. Rearchitecting Jira quarterly. The research and setup time exceeds the time you’ll ever save using the optimized system.

Documentation for Documentation’s Sake Writing detailed process documents for procedures that are done twice a year by people who already know how to do them. Creating comprehensive meeting notes that no one will ever reference.

Competitive Analysis Rabbit Holes Spending entire afternoons researching what competitors are doing when your actual customers have already told you what they want. Analysis becomes a substitute for decision-making.

Inbox Zero Performance Art The elaborate ritual of processing every email, categorizing everything, and maintaining a pristine inbox. The time spent managing email far exceeds the time spent on work that actually matters.

Why We Do This

These activities persist because they solve psychological problems even when they don’t solve work problems:

They feel like progress. Moving files around gives you a sense of accomplishment without the risk of failure that comes with real work.

They look professional. It’s much easier to explain why you’re reorganizing files than why you’re staring at a blank document trying to figure out what to write.

They’re safe. You can’t fail at organizing your desktop. You can definitely fail at the important project you’re avoiding.

They’re finite. Unlike most meaningful work, these tasks have clear endpoints. You can actually finish organizing your files, which feels better than the never-ending nature of most real work.

The Remote Work Amplifier

Working from home has made this problem worse because the performance aspect becomes more important. When your manager can’t see you working, activities that generate visible output become more appealing.

Slack messages about process improvements, detailed project updates that no one asked for, and elaborate shared documents all serve as proof that you’re working hard. The fact that none of it moves anything forward is secondary to the fact that it demonstrates effort.

The Diagnostic Questions

Here are some questions that help identify when you’re performing work instead of doing work:

• If you disappeared for two weeks, would anyone notice this task wasn’t done?
• Are you doing this because it needs to be done, or because it makes you feel productive?
• Would you pay someone else to do this task if you had unlimited money?
• Are you avoiding something more important by doing this?
• Will this task matter in six months?

The honest answers are usually revealing.

The Alternative

The alternative isn’t to eliminate all organizational tasks or process improvements. Some of this stuff actually is necessary. The alternative is to be honest about what you’re doing and why.

If you need to reorganize your files because the current system is genuinely slowing you down, that’s legitimate maintenance. If you’re reorganizing your files because you don’t want to start the difficult project on your to-do list, that’s procrastination with extra steps.

The key is recognizing the difference and being intentional about when you choose the performance over the work. Sometimes you need a mental break, and organizing files is better than scrolling social media. Just don’t pretend it’s productive work.

The Reality Check

Most of us do some version of this, and that’s probably fine. The problem comes when these activities start consuming significant time or when they become a substitute for the work that actually matters.

The goal isn’t to eliminate all work-adjacent activities. It’s to be honest about what they are and make conscious choices about when they’re worth doing. Sometimes you need to clean your desk before you can think clearly. Just don’t spend three hours doing it and call it a productive morning.

Real work is usually harder, riskier, and less immediately satisfying than work-like activities. But it’s also the only thing that actually moves anything forward. Everything else is just an elaborate way of staying busy while avoiding the thing you actually need to do.