My job changed recently and I focus a lot more on work than I used to. The key difference was moving from task allocation to getting objectives. Before, I woul

My job changed recently and I focus a lot more on work than I used to. The key difference was moving from task allocation to getting objectives. Before, I would say about 50% of “in chair” time was work, the rest was essentially co-ordination slack where I had met expectations before the next round of planning / task allocation. Now I work towards high level objectives. An objective might be, make $thing more reliable. Tasks might break down to analyse data, add metrics to get data, oh, need to fix bugs x, y, z. Since getting more autonomy I basically have an infinite pile of work I can draw from. The main difference from the company’s POV is that a manager is no longer choosing exactly what order the work is happening or receiving commitments on exactly how long each step supposed to take. My observation is that I produce a lot more work when I am less closely managed. I suppose this is how agile is supposed to work “pull tasks rather than push, loose estimates”.