I was inspired to write after reading the CEO and co-founder of Skillshare, Michael Karnjanaprakorn’s, post about his ideal work week. He talks about his need for think time and scheduling days for success. He also references Y Combinator’s article on the evolving role of a CEO. The talk about the importance of a CEO transforming their role as the company grows is important at any level of a growing organization.
Through school, and then in the workforce, I almost always kept my to do list in my head and stay organized based on memory. That all changed when Alice’s Table began to grow and the demands on my time became more intense.
As I thought about my methodology for staying organized and accomplishing my goals for the week, I realized how rigid of a schedule I set for myself. I am presenting a few of the techniques that I use to stay on task and focus on growth.
Focus your days
First, and most importantly, each day of the week has a category of focus represented on my calendar. For example, Tuesdays I focus on marketing and PR. While Thursdays are dedicated to finance and administrative things. This allows me to bucket tasks on certain days and not waste mental energy switching from one side of the brain to the other. Additionally, it allows the team to have consistency too.
I rely on this technique to prevent procrastination! I am a master procrastinator. However, if your days have a focus, you must finish all of the pesky admin tasks before the end of the day. Otherwise they will sit around for another week and probably miss their deadline. Being systematic and consistent about this is critical. It makes you accountable to yourself and the team you are working with.
Designate Email Time
Remember, email is really important and being responsive is extremely critical. However, email does not push the business forward. It is strictly reactive not proactive. Therefore, you have to guard against the tendency to live in your inbox. If your inbox is anything like mine, it could take your entire day of focus.
I set aside three times a day to check my email. When I first get into the office in the morning, lunch and before I leave the office at the end of the day. In the morning and at lunch I give myself half an hour to work through my inbox. Set a timer if you have to! Then at the end of the day, I allow myself as long as it takes to finish out my inbox.
This technique spares your mental energy from switching gears too many times. It also makes sure that people get a response in a timely fashion. Let your teammates know that this is your technique so if they need something urgently they can stop by your desk.
You can only do one “think project” a day
Think projects are the lifeblood of a startups. A “think project” is something that takes creativity and focus. They are the projects that are not well defined and move your business incrementally forward. Creating time for these think projects is important, but you can only do one per day! They require dedicated attention and critical thinking, something that you can really only do well for a few hours a day. Schedule out these times to think and push the business forward.
Have a Sunday Routine
Every Sunday, I sit down for half an hour (it doesn’t take that long so do it!) and plan my week. I review my notebook to check in on what got accomplished the week before and what needs to get done in the next week. The reason this is best reserved for Sundays is you need to keep track of the small tasks that need to get accomplished, but also the boulders that you are trying to set in motion during the week.
This sets up a great routine for your team as well. Everyone knows that they will likely get meeting requests or long project emails on Sundays. It allows your teammates to work with you to move the boulders, not view them as curve balls you throw out mid-week without warning.
While these are the techniques that work for me, I realize they may not work for everyone. I believe the most important step is finding the scheduling technique that works best for you and your team, then stick to it!
Alice Rossiter is Founder and CEO of Alice’s Table. You can follow Alice on Twitter: @AliceRossiter.