Worklife Is Shorter Than Real Life
During my recent long run (7 miles), I recalled a quote I had encountered earlier that week:
"Train like you want to live forever and live like you won't."
I understand the point is the all-too-familiar life-is-too-short sentiment. Too short not to spend time doing things you love with people you love. Too short not to spend your money (if you have it:).
I immediately thought about this in the context of work, especially my role as a technologist at Microsoft. I recently introduced a mindset shift within our team where we partner with AI tools to accelerate and scale our individual contributions. I was recognized for this.
In fact, the entire month of June has been a standout for me at work. I created a new agent to drive efficiencies. I introduced a new role concept to support it. I was chosen to be featured in the Microsoft Security newsletter and nominated for the Code of Us campaign, which celebrates the unique stories and backgrounds of people who make up Microsoft’s diversity.
I’d argue that most of this recognition came because I made and took the time to do impactful work.
I often hear from others, “If I only had the time to explore with AI, I’d make and do cool things too.” But that’s working like you’ll work forever, not doing the work you love. Because we will not work forever. If we want to make valuable impact, we must make time to learn, practice, and iterate on things that showcase our capabilities and offerings.
This matters even more now. We're in a season of working where it's an imperative to work with AI and use it to strategize and execute smarter. It’s about tactile strategy over tasks.
Worklife is even shorter than real life. Take your lowest priority, bump it, and replace it with time to learn AI and build tools that help you as a contributor. If someone questions it, tell this story to explain why innovation matters. Then deliver something that overshadows what you bumped. Make it so impactful that no one—your boss included—will care that you deprioritized a lesser task.
Once this works for you, keep doing it. Practice bumping other priorities in the name of impact. This is leadership in the making.
You're creating a role for yourself as an agent boss. In my case, I’m a privacy technologist, but also an AI practitioner armed with a toolbox of tools I build and deploy. That’s how I work and evangelize my worth.
Work like you won’t live forever. Make time.
Recognition will take care of itself.
Trust me.