My focus here is needed. my work is important.

Importance is nearly invisible from inside a task. From where you are sitting it is a form, a shift, an entry in a file that ends with a number needing to be right.

It becomes visible one step downstream — the person who receives the file, the patient whose notes are accurate, the driver who gets the correct address at nine on a Sunday evening. Almost nobody gets to watch that part happen, which is exactly why work that matters so often feels as though it doesn't.