Blog

Blog >> General >> Active vs Passive Work

Active vs Passive Work

active vs passive work

Hello, good people of the Internet. Welcome to another inspiring and informative blog post by one of the writers at CloudQ. I’m happy you could make it! Today, I’ll be talking about active and passive work. I’ll dive into the differences between each, and then I’ll discuss which kind of work you probably want to be doing (and how to balance between the two). If you’re ready to get going, grab a bevvy, a blankie, and scroll on!

First off, let’s talk about the differences between active and passive work. What the heck does “active work” even mean? I’m so glad you asked!

According to many online resources, active work is defined as: When a person is working for the Participating Employer and is physically and mentally able to perform the normal duties of the job. You could go with that, but if we break it down to just the word active, we get: When a person is engaged in action; characterized by energetic work, participation, etc.; busy: an active life.

Basically, it means doing something.

So how does that relate to passive work?

Passive work is more about watching, looking at, or listening to things rather than doing things. In a place of employment, it’s equally as important as active work.

Confused yet?

Good.

If you weren’t, it wouldn’t allow me to expand upon my grand statement until you have the clarity of a freshly-washed window, and I’d then be out of a job. It would be a sad, cloudy, gray day for me, and… Never mind. I’m getting carried away! Back to the topic!

In a job such as mine, active work is when I’m creating graphics, writing content, editing content by others, creating the company email, and things like that. These tasks are important, but they’re actually not where most of my work is done. In a job where items like the ones listed above are paramount, these things can also be done in a very short period of time.

If these active work items aren’t done, things don’t get shared on social media (no one around to write the texts), updates to our graphics are nonexistent, outside folks don’t know our open positions, and no one in the company knows anything that’s going on—or anything that will be going on. That’s just a handful of items that would die on the vine, so to speak.

Now, my passive work is when I’m doing research. I’m usually not taking notes during this period, but I’m reading, looking, and listening to what other companies like ours are doing and learning how to do what I do in a more efficient, prettier way. I’d say research takes up most of my time. I spend hours reading and learning about things before I feel comfortable writing articles on them, and inspiration for new artwork is literally just looking at images.

There are also times when actively working at something outside my defined job role sparks ideas because I’m not actively thinking about a problem or issue. This can also be considered passively working. Thinking about how to accomplish a task or solve a problem is passive work, and everyone does it.

Take my husband, for example. He’ll come upon an issue in his job and have no idea how to rectify it. So, he turns to something else (often music is his muse but also just taking a walk) and thinks about the issue while thinking through the steps to every possible outcome of every possible scenario. Steps between point A and point B are reconsidered, flipped, changed, and shuffled until he has the answer he’s looking for. Then he shifts to active work and gets whatever it was done. There are rarely surprises or hiccups.

This is what I mean when I say passively working. He may have been walking and thinking for an hour, but it was still work. I may be reading articles online or journals to learn about something, but it’s still work.

Oftentimes, you don’t get paid for passive work, but for creatives, it’s an integral part of the workday. I have to know what’s working before I can work it. Because of this, I don’t often get stuck in a rut. I’m able to sit down and write an article, with knowledge of my subject matter well-ingrained into my brain, and knock an 800-to1000-word article out in about an hour.

You must learn your subject before you can write what you know, and you should always write what you know.

There’s a nugget of wisdom for you.

If you’re always working actively, you’re doing something wrong. Either you’re not challenging yourself to do/learn/be more, or you’re going at whatever it is you’re doing with half an idea.

Neither of those things are acceptable.

So, take a little time each day to sit and think. Use passive working to increase your productivity and problem-solving skills, and your active work time will produce better results.

Turn off all the distractions while you’re learning, too. If you’re halfway engaged, you’ll only learn half as well.

As one of my favorite YouTube artists says, “Always dabble before you dive.” This means testing something in a small way before you dive into it for real and go big. Learn. Even if that learning is reading, thinking, or listening. Give it a go, and you’ll be a better employee for it.

Thanks for stopping in and having a gander at my post. If you’re in a reading mood, be sure to check out some of our other blog posts. We have a bunch! Until next time!

Contributor

Jo Michaels

Marketing Coordinator

cloudq cloud

Pin It on Pinterest