What is shallow work?

Example: A product manager finishes a two-hour deep work session designing a new feature spec and feels the familiar cognitive fog setting in. Instead of forcing herself to start the next strategic document — which would produce slow, low-quality output — she pivots to her shallow work queue: approving three expense reports, responding to six non-urgent Slack threads, updating the team's project board, and filing her travel receipts. By 3 PM the shallow queue is empty, and she has preserved zero deep attention for tasks that never needed it. The shallow work got done, the deep work was protected, and nothing fell through the cracks.

This concept is part of Attention and Focus in the How to Think curriculum.