"Hey, got two minutes?" That's how half my ideas start. Sometimes it really is two minutes. Sometimes it turns into a brainstorm, a roadmap, a spontaneous back-and-forth that unpacks a whole strategy. I've always worked like that. Before COVID, I'd walk the halls, swing by someone's desk, catch people in the kitchen. Check in, riff, bounce ideas. It wasn't scheduled. It was constant, low-level, ambient collaboration. That's how I stayed in sync, and how I got things done. Post-COVID? Now I do the same thing digitally. Slack huddles, FaceTimes, DMs, quick video drops. Same rhythm, different tools. It's not the most efficient way to work. But it's mine. I'm not a heads-down, lock-in, flow-state kind of person. I admire the people who are. I've worked with teammates who show up at 9, plug in their headphones, and hammer through their to-do list like a machine. By 5 p.m. they've shipped something tangible. Clean. Done. Me? Some days I'm still at it by 9 p.m. My day is a web of conversations. Ideas get unpacked in voice notes. Strategies evolve in real time through "quick" catch-ups. For years I'd look at the clock and tell myself I was outworking everyone. Twelve hours against their eight. Same hourly value, just more of it. Then I started paying closer attention to what actually shipped. While I was aligning stakeholders, spitballing ideas, and iterating out loud, my more focused teammates were quietly delivering full features, campaigns, polished assets. Their 8 hours of deep work out-produced my 12 hours of connected chaos. That was a moment. My time wasn't inherently worth more. If the only scoreboard was output, I was behind. But when I stopped measuring in hours and started measuring in impact, I saw the other half of the picture. Their 8 hours were pure execution. Focused, uninterrupted, highly productive. Mine were context gathering, idea shaping, friction spotting, trust building. Their work was visible. Code, designs, copy. Mine was mostly invisible: The scope creep that never happened because I flagged it early. The smoother handoff because I'd already aligned the teams behind the scenes. The clean version-one because the right people had already weighed in. The two department heads collaborating because I made a casual connection over coffee three weeks ago. Their ability to stay heads-down was often made possible by someone doing the connecting, the sensing, the smoothing behind the curtain. And a lot of the time, that someone was me. So yeah. On an individual productivity scoreboard, their 8 crushed my 12. But on a team-impact scoreboard, my 12 helped their 8 land cleanly. We weren't competing. We were just playing different positions. Everybody Runs a Different Rhythm Over the years I've seen enough to recognize the patterns. People fall into rhythm types. And let's be real, some of these aren't just personality quirks. They're wiring. A lot of neurodivergent folks, ADHD, autistic, highly sensitive types, land at one end of this spectrum or another. Some hyperfocus like it's a superpower, headphones on, deep in the zone for hours. Others can't even start until a conversation sparks it. Some need to talk to think. Others need silence to not explode. It's not good or bad. It just is. There are the Sprinters , who start fast, stay locked in, and reliably deliver by end of day. The Night Owls , who light up once the house goes quiet and nobody's pinging them. The Burst Creators , who work in flashes, hyperfocused for 45 minutes, then need to walk, scroll, reset, and go again. The Slow Burners , who need time to think and absorb before anything hits the page, then drop a perfect take out of nowhere. And then there are the Social Weavers . People like me. Who process by talking, build ideas in conversation, and do their best work between the official moments. None of these rhythms is better. They're just different operating systems. It only gets messy when we start expecting everyone to run the same one. If You're Wired Like Me A few things I've learned that actually make it smoother. Say it out loud early. Let people know how you operate. Something like: "I tend to check in a lot and think out loud, it's how I get aligned. If it ever feels like too much, tell me." Give people options. Some folks are fine with an impromptu voice note. Others want a write-up or a scheduled chat. Respect their rhythm and let them pick how they engage. Honor their deep work. If someone's in Do Not Disturb, don't break it. But ask for a window where quick questions are fair game. An open lane for check-ins and fast pivots. Find shared rituals. A ten-minute daily stand-up with no agenda, just faces, can be enough to keep a team feeling connected. Async video threads, weekly drop-ins, shared notes. Little things go a long way. And it's not always about preference. It's about needs. Some people literally need to block everything out to function. Others literally need human contact to kickstart their brain. There's room for both, if we stop pretending everyone runs the same firmware. Celebrate the whole spectrum. When the Sprinter ships something flawless in an afternoon, call it out. When the Weaver prevents a month-long detour with one hallway chat, celebrate that too. We're Not an Assembly Line. We're a Band. Every team needs rhythm. Somebody's keeping time, somebody's playing lead, someone's anchoring the groove. Sometimes the person setting the pace is in the background, not soloing out front. But when it clicks, everyone hears it. I've stopped trying to justify my 12-hour days. I just accept that this is the rhythm I run. Not because I'm inefficient. Because I work at the edge of execution and alignment. I create leverage through connection. And leverage always beats hours. Find the rhythm that's native to you. Find the people who complement it. Then play. Further Reading Rhythmic Attention and ADHD: A Narrative and Systematic Review (SpringerLink). How rhythms of attention and timing differ in ADHD, which maps right onto the work-rhythm idea. ADHD in the Workplace (CADDAC). A practical guide to how ADHD shows up at work and what accommodations help. Managing Neurodiversity in Workplaces: A Review and Future Research Agenda (MDPI). Broader than ADHD, on the organizational side of different ways of working.