Getting Stuck In

Recently I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, the Wookash Podcast, this episode was with Mark Healey from Media Molecule. It’s a great episode, you should go listen to it. One small thing I noticed was how often he used the phrase “get stuck in” for long deep work sessions. This is not an uncommon phrase, just not one used in my part of the world much. Here in the U.S. people tend to use “lock-in” in a similar way, but I think there is some key differences in the meaning that could prove useful as a guide for what type of work I want to focus on.

When I hear things like, “I gotta lock-in” or “I am going to lock-in on this”, I tend to think of it as an act of will. It carries with it a connotation of forcing yourself to do the work. i.e. “I am going to lock myself to my desk until I complete what I set out to do.” And implicitly in the phrase is the idea that if I do not accomplish what I set out to do, then that time was, at least in someway, a failure.

Whereas “I got stuck in on the work” brings the feeling of, well, getting stuck in the work like quicksand. Work in this regard doesn’t feel like an act of will, but a force outside myself that is pulling me into it. And the less I fight it, the smoother I can move through it. Getting stuck in on an idea is a opportunity to explore and see what it could be.

Of course, there are always going to be times when you’ll have to “lock-in” to complete the project. The mundane, difficult, and quality tasks often require will. But I want to look for the projects that I can get stuck in on. I want to find the sticky ideas and get stuck in building them.