[beeffective]

As others have said, those 2088 hours a year in my job aren't deliberate practice, and as a software engineer, I spend about 2 hours a day or less doing software development. However, after 8 years of professional software development, I'm finally reaching a point of not only being highly skilled, but also establishing a track record of influence and communication due to my increasing confidence. The project experience and successes have been a huge help, but only when I spend the mental energy to engage in my "meetings" and "email" that relate to my new projects.

In other words, I can see the benefit of taking all aspects of my job seriously, even meetings, because they are the backbone of influencing others on your ideas/design as well as fully understanding all aspects of a project.