TIME MANAGEMENT

TIME MANAGEMENT FOR MORTALS

Based on Oliver Burkeman’s book “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals,” here are some key lessons that I have taken away from the book. Why is this at the top? Because time is our most precious resource, and the way that we use it, or not, determines all else. To me it is the thing we should most value, it is our greatest indicator, and it is our literal life.

• Embrace your finite nature
  • Accept that you have limited time (about 4,000 weeks in an 80-year lifespan) and cannot do everything.
• Focus on what truly matters
  • Instead of trying to optimize everything, prioritize activities and relationships that bring the most meaning and satisfaction.
• Let go of the efficiency trap
  • Recognize that being more efficient often leads to increased demands, not more free time.
• Make conscious choices
  • Time management is less about control and more about deliberately choosing what to prioritize and what to neglect.
• Embrace “the joy of missing out”
  • Understand that making choices and missing out on some things is what gives your decisions meaning.
• Practice patience and presence
  • Focus on fully enjoying the experiences you do have time for, rather than constantly planning for the future.
• Adopt a “fixed volume” approach to productivity
  • Set predetermined time boundaries for work and limit your works in progress.
• Cultivate meaningful depth
  • Prioritize depth over breadth in your pursuits and relationships.
• Accept imperfection
  • Recognize that you cannot control everything and learn to be at peace with imperfect outcomes.
• Practice doing nothing
  • Set aside time to simply be, without trying to accomplish anything.

TYPICAL DAILY SCHEDULE (work week only):

My schedule, and beliefs around it, have changed a lot over the years. Most recently I adapted the schedule you'll see below after my encounter with burnout due in part to a depressive episode. As a part of my recovery, my therapist, as well as many well-meaning friends, encouraged me to focus my energy on setting more appropriate boundaries within my life. I have since adopted the adage that it is Work/Life Separation, not Work/Life Balance, because I believe that the thing that draws the most attention receives the most attention. Therefor, my schedule is roughly as follows:

• 6:45 - Wake, immediately meditate and journal in the 6-Minute Journal
• 8:00-9:00 - Exercise or breakfast
  • Sometimes I don't eat breakfast if I'm not feeling it, but lately I've been enjoying protein smoothies on these days.
• 9:45-10:30 - Administrative time
  • Condensed from its original time, I’ve found that beginning my day with exercise is more beneficial to my mood and the flow of my day at a slight expense to my catch-up time than the minor psychological benefit of starting the day with a clean empty inbox. This has taken a bit of acceptance to be alright with.
• 10:30-12:00 - Deep Work Time / 1:1 meeting time
  • I classify deep work time as anything that requires total focus for a period of longer than one hour. Often this expands and I will take a shorter lunch if I find myself in a particular state of flow, but I recommend people guarding their break times as much as possible, because no one will guard them for you. I use the Endel app, of which I am an investor, to set deep work timers. The soundscapes were developed by fellow people with synesthesia and so they are pleasant and effective for me.
• 12:00-13:00 - Lunch, away from my keyboard
• 13:00-13:15 - E-mail Catch-Up
  • I add a shorter second period for e-mail catchup and do not spend any additional time on them throughout the day unless deep work is not required.
• 13:15-17:00 - Deep Work Time
• 17:00 - Work Ends
  • There are a few exceptions to this hard cutoff, as i've noticed the importance of a stronger connection with my UCAN counterparts, but thus far, I have maintained this rigidity and found it very healthy.

You may be wondering, "Where are all the meetings?!" and that's a good question. It depends on the day, and while the majority of my high-impact work does not happen in meetings, they are of course unavoidable. 1:1 meetings with my team, for example, are hugely important and I prefer to schedule them in the mornings in lieu or in addition to my first Deep Work block. For all other meetings, I use tools like Clockwise or Reclaim.ai to guard my schedule and then encourage people to use a scheduling invite link to fit meetings where they fit best.

NOTE: Most people I work with have grown used to this way of working, but there are many who are notorious for dropping meetings blindly onto calendars with little context. For this I usually send a friendly message asking for more context and why the meeting is especially urgent to warrant a context-less invite. Most meetings can wait.

WEEKLY RITUALS:

• No Meeting Fridays.
  • This day has become extremely precious to me and is the single most valuable day of my week. I use this for creative projects, document creation, and occasional walks through the park when the weather is particularly excellent. Please consider these “Deep Work” days, and be prepared for me to auto-decline meetings during these days.
• Reach out to internal/external Partners
  • It can just be a friendly hello, but doing these every 1 - 2 weeks is vital for my relationships and is the best way for me to keep up with what is happening in the business.
• Ideally, I complete my expenses at the end of each week. I do not always succeed. Fridays tend to be great days for this because they are usually quieter.
• "Me Days"
  • These are an absolute requirement for me. Sunday is typically my no-plan day, but as long as I have a single day in which to absolutely be by myself then I am typically able to cope.

IMPORTANT LIFE PRINCIPLES THAT I (TRY TO) FOLLOW

• Parkinson’s Law
  • “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
  • By applying artificial constraints within your day, you will be more productive than your fellow teammates. I do this by segmenting my day (Admin time, etc.), but I highly encourage you to apply several constraints to your time. Better work is actually less work, contrary to popular belief (see below).
• Pareto Principle:
  • “80% of the value comes from 20% of the work.”
  • You can view this in multiple ways, and I encourage you to apply it liberally. Focusing on the most effective 20% will free you from the fight for perfection and make you more effective, overall.
  • I also sometimes refer to this as the Minimum Effective Dose (MED).
• Thematic Learning:
  • As you teach something, and doubly so when you learn, you should strive to find how any given piece of information is transferable. When we’re in school we are often bombarded with information with the intent that we will learn by rote memorization. This is not effective. Thematic learning encourages students (and teachers) to make logical leaps to solve problems that are not directly related. This small amount of extra effort will allow you to absorb the principle of the learning instead of just the facts of the learning.
• Shoshin or “The ever-smaller surfboard.”
  • Related to the principle above, professional surfer Laird Hamilton would regularly lament that he didn’t feel challenged in his sport. One day he went out only to find that he had brought his wife’s board with him instead of his own. It was far too small and proved incredibly difficult… but invigorating… This became a baseline principle of his that he now uses in every facet of his life. Similar to the artificial constraints, specifically making tasks more difficult for yourself will ultimately force you to become much more effective. Laird had to surf with surgical precision to avoid crashing, you will need to be on top of your game to avoid making yourself miserable. The idea here is that you never absorb more information than when you’re just starting out. In life, at work, etc. By forcing yourself into the beginner mentality, you will learn more, become better, and kick butt.
  • Examples:
    • Try a new keyboard. QWERTZ, AZERTY or Dvorak instead of QWERTY
    • If learning to code, suddenly switch languages. You will be immediately aware of the differences, cementing knowledge of your original language.
    • NOTE: For more on Thematic Learning and Shoshin, check out The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin
• Explain Like I’m Five (ELI5)
  • Complementary to the previous two philosophies, by constantly seeking a simpler explanation you will become more knowledgeable and more understandable to others. Knowledge comes from understanding, and few things build that more than distillation of a subject. A simple tweak would be to slow down and explain it to one of the following:
    • A grandparent
      • Often have wisdom and can think thematically, but will have trouble with things like jargon.
    • A child
      • Often have short attention spans, which will force you to speak more effectively and will improve your showmanship.
    • Someone with vision or hearing impairment
      • Both have value. Explaining to a visually-impaired person will force you to hone your words. Explaining to someone who is hard of hearing will force you to explain visually and also enunciate and slow down. Both are invaluable.
    • I highly recommend you reach out to an expert in any topic you’re interested in and ask them to distil their expertise down to its basest parts. This will prove beneficial to you both.
    • Note: An excellent book on communication is Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. Listen to the audiobook for inflection.
• Hedonic Adaptation
  • Suppose you see a beautiful sunrise today. It’s amazing. Nothing could be better. The next day you see a sunrise, but you also have a really nice latte. AMAZING. Best sunrise ever. The third day you add a really flaky, buttery croissant to the mix and wow. Blown away… But day four, you don’t have the croissant. You don’t have the latte… You just have the sunrise. Nothing has changed about the sunrise. It’s just as beautiful, possibly even more beautiful… But you’re focused on what’s missing. Somehow the sunrise seems less. Because of this natural tendency, I am on the lookout for it in my everyday life, if only so I’m aware of where it exists, but ideally, I use this awareness to consciously appreciate the little luxuries I’m now accustomed to having. Enjoy your latte, but appreciate the beauty of the sunrise.
• Meditation/Prayer effects on Theta Waves
  • No, I am not trying to get you to join a new, fancy religion. Instead I am imparting on you the value of awareness in your everyday life. In 2008 I participated in a study at my University (Colorado University of Boulder) that intended to compare the brainwaves of habitual meditators, habitual prayers, and people who do neither. The results of the study were fascinating to me. Both meditators and prayers saw an increase in brain activation, but in slightly different regions. Prayers saw elevated Alpha and Theta waves, which are also seen as a result of things like massage, relaxation meditation and relaxation aided by white noise. Loving Kindness/Mindfulness meditators saw increases in Delta and Theta waves. This is likely because they rely on an “active awareness”, which is work. But the fascinating part for me came when we compared the brainwaves of all three groups at rest. We were placed in a sensory deprivation chamber and asked to just relax. Both Prayers and Meditators entered a deep rest state within a few short minutes, whereas non-prayer/meditators took upwards of 40min to 1 hr. Some never entered this state. Because of this and many other reasons, I have incorporated meditation into my daily life as regularly as possible. The minimum effective dose of meditation is around 15min/day, however 5min per day for 20 days is infinitely more valuable than a single 60min meditation. Take it slow and add a single minute every week until have built the habit, which leads me to…
• The Power of Habit / Atomic Habits
  • These are both truly life-changing books, primarily because they lay out how to begin, or change a habit in the simplest way I have ever read. They introduce a principle called Habit Stacking, which is an incredibly powerful way to build a habit. Essentially, choose a habit you would like to have (meditation, for example) and anchor it to an existing habit. For me an example would be to meditate before I brush my teeth in the morning. You’re using the success of something that’s automatic to aid in the creation of something that is difficult. Start small. Start at the atomic level
• A “Yes or No” is a No
  • Early in my life, a mentor of mine would say to me, “Never ask a Yes or No question unless you’re looking for a No”. I ignored him for a lot of my life, until one day I listened to a lecture on open vs closed questions and how they affect the brain. The short of it is that Binary (yes or no) questions require almost no brain power. Meaning the responses were nearly automatic. Worse, 80% of the responses were “No”. In the study they asked a simple favor (Can I have a dollar?) in two different forms. “Can I have a dollar?” (binary), and “What would you say to giving me a dollar?” (open). The questions were attempting to accomplish the same goal, but the more open-ended question led to a near-opposite reaction from the participants. Instead of 80% negative answers, they received 82% positive answers.
• Seek Discomfort in the Form of Rejection
  • As social animals, we fear rejection. Prior to the Neolithic phase in human history, and even well into the 21st century, social rejection could very well mean death. If you were rejected by a mate, your genes would die off. If you were rejected by a community, you were shunned or even killed. But these days the fear is largely over-reactive and does not benefit us as much. There are still very real reasons why social proof is necessary in today’s society, but being afraid to ask a stranger for directions? That’s irrational. By desensitizing yourself to harmless rejection, you will become more confident and happier.
    • There are two excellent resources to accomplish this. The first is the book Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang, which chronicles his attempts to get rejected for 100 days straight, becoming famous in the process. The second is the app Dare Me, which provides daily challenges to get you out of your comfort zone and into the real world.
• Decision Dice
  • You may all be aware of these by now. They might more effectively be called Perspective Dice because they encourage you to think from the perspective of another person. They are incredibly useful tools for gathering differing opinions within a closed environment. They also have the added benefit of making you more empathetic to those who you would otherwise loathe. I have two pair, but these days the dice have become a part of my internal problem-solving.
• The One Minute Rule
  • Popularized by Leo Babauta from the website zenhabits.net, this is an extremely simple productivity tip that seeks to ease the burden of an endless To-Do list by suggesting that you approach the smallest things first. This is actually the opposite of how I normally like to operate, but I have found that I personally find it difficult to fully immerse myself in Deep Work when I have a long list of minutiae looming over me. So, using the One Minute Rule, you simply never put off any task that will take you less than one minute. At first, you will likely feel overburdened as you work through a seemingly endless stream of 1-minutes tasks, but soon you will find you have run out. At this point, increase it to tasks that take 5 minutes or less. Then 10. After 1-3 days you will find that having taken care of the quickest tasks first, you will have much more time for the most important work.
• Deliberate Spontaneity AKA Luck
  • There is not a person that knows me who would not say that I have an abnormal amount of luck. There are definite elements at play here, such as me being a tall, blond, blue-eyed straight male (this helps a lot), or generally being a nice person whenever you possibly can, or studying body language to ensure that you are perceived as more open, but there are many other examples that are much more difficult to explain. A few things are at work here. First, much of what we consider “luck” is actually a psychological construct, meaning that your perception of the relative luck of a situation has a slight determination on its outcome. People who believe they are lucky tend to ignore negative things more readily and focus on the “lucky” things. Further to this, your belief about your own luckiness literally changes the way you see the world. There have been several studies comparing the completion speed of a series of tasks between self-viewing lucky and unlucky subjects and in each of the studies, the people who thought of themselves as lucky completed the tasks quicker. But in addition to those, I practice a technique that has been described to me as “Deliberate Spontaneity”. Put simply, this is the patient art of positioning yourself so you can take advantage of opportunities. Sounds simple. Sounds opportunistic. And, to be fair, it is, but where active opportunism requires always being on the lookout for opportunities, Deliberate Spontaneity just requires you to be ready when an opportunity appears. I move to Amsterdam without ever having been here. I had never really even known much about the Netherlands, or the Dutch, or even what the food was like. But the opportunity appeared and I said, Sounds good, let’s move to Europe in 2 weeks. This will not cure cancer, or instantly make you lucky, but it will help you see opportunities when they appear and be better prepared to take them.
• The Seventh Source * NEW *
  • This is a recently new addition to this list, and it's so far proven to be a useful tool. The idea is that if you ask someone for something and they are unable to help, you ask them for who they would recommend you reach out to next. Within 7 sources, you will have found someone who is willing and able to help with your task. I've found that presenting this ask early also lessens the burden put on others by our inquiries. It never feels good to say no, so instead you offer them a way out of it that also relieves them of an additional obligation. I'll continue to try this and will reevaluate over time.

COMMUNICATION

• I try to be very careful and methodical with how I plan my time (it is our only genuinely nonrenewable resource, after all) and typically only like to complete a task a single time, including reading and replying to emails. If you send me an email, I will try to answer any questions a single time rather than engage in a back-and-forth.
  • For this reason, I sometimes become frustrated when I hear the same questions brought up consistently. I am continually working on accepting that not everyone's memory works in the same weird was as mine, but it is also a part of who I am.
  • I will always try to respect you and not waste any of your time.
• I believe meetings should accomplish 1 of 3 things and, with few exceptions, should be non-recurring and time-constrained (meaning no or minimal recurring update meetings):
  • Discuss something specific
  • Teach something specific
  • Finish something specific
• I am a slow information processor and will not always have a comprehensive reply during in-person interactions unless it aligns with information that I have previously integrated. Because of this, I will often write down my thoughts later to share.
  • There are exceptions to this, which I’m still trying to define. Workshop or brainstorming meetings tend to let me process much faster than overly technical or discussion-type meetings, for example. I thrive during round table discussions, but am a poor public speaker.
  • This also extends, as I've found out, to situations in my personal life. I often cannot put words to my emotions immediatiely, but will almost always follow up when I do.
• I often get hung up on word choice and linguistic curiosities in certain situations (specifically over email or chat and in memos), which will cause me to hyperfocus and dive down a rabbit hole.
  • As a strange example, I would much rather someone outright ask me to do something or tell me something they need than use passive language where meaning is more challenging for me to understand. “It would have been great if…” is different from “Would you please…”. One is an opinion, one is a request. To further complicate this, there are cultural communication norms where the former is acknowledged as a polite request and the latter is seen as rude. I would prefer to be clear and rude in these cases, but welcome feedback about this.
• Because I sometimes assume that other people also live by the “one and done” mantra mentioned at the beginning of this section, you may occasionally be annoyed by my self-reliance or how quickly I act on things discussed. I mean by this that I will often ask for something once, and if it’s not accomplished within what I have subconsciously determined is a reasonable amount of time for the task, I will seek to complete it myself. This is not always done intentionally, and I may not always be aware of it.
  • I am working on this, and have started adding specificity into my language when it comes to time sensitivity. If you have any examples of these situations, please share them with me so that I can become more present about them.
• I have very few real requirements of my team, except that they set honest expectations (about their time and abilities, mostly) and attempt to live up to them themselves. This is called integrity, and it is a core value. We all miss deadlines and can be overburdened at times. Still, it’s important to try to be conscious of this and vocal about our abilities so that we can shuffle the responsibilities evenly among the team. It is difficult sometimes to know when you’ve had too much, I definitely understand, but the rest of the team and I are here to help.
  • If you're a member of my team and reading this, please tell me when I’m giving you too much work, and please be honest when you’ve taken on too much yourself.
• I will assume you mean well. Please try to do the same with me, because I almost always do.
• Only Deal With Once
  • Because I read every single email (except when filtered, see below), which is time costly, I have established a mentality toward email where I prefer to only “deal” with an email a single time. I believe there is no “later” when it comes to email. It never stops. Therefore, I try to reply with all of the information I have or to make plans immediately rather than participating in infinite email threads.
• Filter, Filter, Filter
  • I have an ever-increasing number of filters that allow me to remove the static from my day. If you need help with this, I am happy to help. I love helping here. It brings me so much joy to help here.
• Set Up Email Effectively
  • As of 20 October 2021, I have been setting up my inbox using the following setup in my work and personal life. It is a game-changer, especially helping me to build a habit of using hotkeys. I utilize the Multiple Inbox in GMail, and separate into these sections:
    • Action Items: Items that require my action or attention.
    • Calendar: Items that require me to schedule something.
    • Action Items - Personal: Non-Work-Related items that require my attention.
    • Awaiting Reply: Items that I am awaiting a reply for. I make it a weekly practice to check in on these items.
• ARCHIVE. Your archive is infinitely searchable, so only keep the things that require your immediate attention in your inbox. There is a tendency to want to keep everything accessible by leaving it in your inbox, but this has the opposite effect. Instead, it makes everything harder to find by increasing the amount of noise you have to sift through.
• NOTE: It is probably very telling that I’ve included topics like “Email” before much larger and grandiose topics such as “Leadership,” and that is because I believe these sections contain meta-philosophies that can be thematic in other areas of your life. E-mail cleanliness and ritual can lend themselves well to time management or to habit formation. Similarly, documentation principles can help you simplify your thought process by aligning beforehand on decisions now so that you never have to make them again, saving time and also mental clarity.

LEADERSHIP

• First, I don’t really believe that there is a singular thing called “Leadership.” Instead, I think many people lump multiple meta-skills into a bucket called “Leadership” because it is difficult to distill leadership qualities. Some of the skills I find important are the following:
  • People Management, Governance, and Stakeholder Management
    • Leadership is often synonymous with people management, but most of the people I consider “good leaders” do not have any direct reports. Instead, they manage their peers well, or they manage their stakeholders and customers well. Customer Service, Governance, and People Management are meta-skills that will translate well into the bucket of “leadership.”
    • I believe that each person can be a leader, even if they don’t manage people. Leadership is simply the ability to motivate a group of people toward a common objective, and can be done in every place of the business. Therefore, I aim to hire leaders (look for my hiring principles below).
    • If I were your manager, I would likely never tell you exactly how to do your job. Instead, I will attempt to share examples of how I work, as well as some best practices, and will coach you in creating your own workflow.
    • I tend to check in with the team periodically. I am more concerned with your well-being than with the exact execution of your responsibilities because I believe that a healthy teammate is the best kind of teammate.
  • Team Building
    • Largely self-explanatory, but a surprising number of candidates I’ve interviewed for leadership roles seem to neglect the important piece of how to build great teams functionally. I believe that team building is everyone’s responsibility and that leaders are only there to provide course correction and encouragement in how individuals collaborate. When I use “OTOD” or One Team One Dream, I mean it as an important mantra that I truly believe in. A solid team can each act as force multipliers for each other, even in functions that wouldn’t seem to have anything in common.
    • “Off-sites” or individual events are dental checkups and should be done periodically, but team building is something we should be doing daily.
    • "Garbage Time", or time spent working side by side on mundane tasks, is a much mnore long-lasting form of team-building than any offsite or team-building exercise you can attempt.
    • I’m always looking for new fun ways to build a better team, so if you have thoughts or philosophies that you believe in, I would love to hear them.
  • Project Management
    • This is important because you will invariably manage projects at every level of your career, but knowing the basics of project management also helps you teach this skill and to recognize when it is not being properly implemented.
  • Planning and Organization
    • Another meta-skill, the ability to plan ahead and organize your working life, will act as force multipliers for anything you do. Creating thorough documentation ahead of time will save you from needing to remember each step later and will free up an untold amount of brainpower that you can use elsewhere.
    • 20% Failure Rate
      • There is a system’s planning concept that recommends planning for 8-10% of whatever you build to be broken at any given time. I think this is too low for planning purposes (but realistic for practical purposes), so I seek to create systems that will still work well within a 20% failure rate. If you have a team of 5, it should be perfectly reasonable for that team to function indefinitely with one member gone at all times. If you build 100 products, you should plan for 20 of them to break.
  • Finance Management
    • Above a certain level, conversations happen regarding headcount planning and money. Therefore, it is important to be able to speak confidently about the financial impacts of your decisions.
  • Communication
    • There are certainly leaders who are not great at communication, but communication makes being a great leader much easier. Learning more about how to effectively convey ideas and how to empathize with your audience also makes you a better person, in my opinion.
    • All leaders must, at several points, have difficult conversations. It is best to be prepared for them.
  • Organizational Theory
    • Most leaders that I know are not great organizational thinkers. There is a tendency to rely on small, memorable bits of guidance regarding organizational leadership to cover up for lack of theoretical knowledge. Which is mostly enough to get by. Therefore, understanding concepts like Spans of Control, Group Behavior, and Game Theory will set you apart and also help you think much more clearly.
  • "Strategy" as a Weapon
    • In my career I've often seen the word strategy weaponized by people who have a very singular interpretation of the word. It's been my experience that there are roughly three types of strategists out there, and they all play an integral part in any organization. As I'll show you later, ideas are just a multiplier for execution, so you can have grand strategists all you want, but if you have no one planning or executing the work then your strategy will fail. Those categories, as I see them are:
      1. Visionaries: These are individuals who excel at seeing the big picture and long-term goals. They are adept at identifying future opportunities and creating innovative strategies to achieve them.
      2. Planners: These people are skilled at breaking down the vision into actionable steps and detailed plans. They focus on organizing resources, setting milestones, and ensuring that all parts of the strategy are feasible and well-coordinated.
      3. Executors: These individuals are proficient at implementing and executing the strategic plans. They ensure that the plans are carried out effectively, monitor progress, and make necessary adjustments to stay on course towards the strategic objectives.

MISC STUFFY WORK STUFF

EXPENSES

• My general rule of thumb is that any purchase I make should, in some way, benefit the company. If I have a long flight and will be going straight to work upon arrival, this is a great use case for traveling in Business Class. If I’m flying a day or two early, I consider flying economy instead. Does it benefit the company? If yes, It’s probably a good purchase. Does it only benefit me? Think about it. Does it benefit both? This is a win-win. And if you have any questions, we can talk about them. I love to hear opinions on this. Entertainment is the same mentality. Occasional team dinners are a yes, but partying every weekend on the company’s dime? Not cool.
  • Given the nature of Freedom & Responsibility, I operate under the assumption that no one will ever come after me about my expenses... until they do. Considering that I may someday have to defend/justify my expenses, I have taken on the habit of writing down my rationale whenever I make a purchase that may be considered questionable when taken out of context. I simply ask myself, “In three months will this look reckless?” If the answer is yes, I add my reasoning to my doc. This does two things:
    • It allows me peace of mind. If I’m ever questioned about a “questionable expense,” I can refer to my google doc (titled KO’s Questionable Expenses) rather than my imperfect memory to see exactly how I came to the decision to make a given purchase.

WORK TRAVEL

• Related to my expense principles, travel is becoming increasingly structured at Netflix, with possible travel budgets on the way. Whenever I am considering a work trip, it must meet the following criteria:
  • It must have a good, specific and singular purpose that benefits the team or is business-critical.
  • It should be documentable. Meaning that if you are asked to provide a document outlining the purpose of your trip, it is simple to understand. As your manager, I should be able to ask what your purpose was, what you were able to accomplish, and a summary of any learnings you made.

HIRING

• When hiring new team members, I look at the following criteria:
  • VALUES - These are deep-seated beliefs that motivate behaviors and determine interdepartmental compatibilities. Among the most important are the following:
    • Character
    • Common Sense
    • Creativity
    • Practical Idealism
      • The difference between impractical and practical idealism is an important one. And pessimists should largely be avoided because while their contrarian opinion is a good one to have, their thought process tends to break the momentum and will ultimately damage the entire team. Instead, hire empathetic Practical Idealists who are capable of thinking critically but whose baseline skews toward the positive.
  • ABILITIES - These are ways of thinking and behaving. Some people are great learners and fast processors, while others are slow processors and possess the ability to see things at a higher level. Some focus on granular detail, while others think creatively or logically.
  • SKILLS - These are learned tools, such as foreign languages, software, etc., and are less important. I consider these perks but largely unnecessary.
• Interview panels should be chosen systematically and strategically. People tend to pick people like themselves. If you want a visionary, pick a visionary for the interview panel. If you want a detail-oriented person, pick a detail-oriented person.
• Look at the team holistically and see what values, abilities, and perspectives it could use. Avoid hiring an archetype. There is no perfect person, but you can create a pretty perfect team with the right mix of people.
  • NOTE: This last point does not apply to roles where a specific knowledge base is required, such as Site Support or Studio Finance Specialists.

PARTNERSHIP

• In any partnership there will be a time when a request comes your way. As caring humans, we like to please the people we work with. However, saying "Yes" to everything has an upper theoretical limit. It is just not always the best or most scalable approach to doing anything. Sometimes we need to say, “not right now,” even though it may temporarily strain the relationship. Therefor, we should approach new work pragmatically.
  • If you say yes, be specific on what work you will do, and be quick to fail. There always comes a point when it’s time to stop trying to fix an issue and it becomes time to find the appropriate escalation pathway. Take the learning, and pass it off to the correct partner, or draft a memo about why it can’t be accomplished given the current timeline and resources available.
  • Sometimes having the ball drop is the best thing for the situation, because a glaring failure yields quick results. By helping a lot we are often relied upon when the best solution might be for our partners to improve. This is difficult to do, but important.
  • Sometimes providing joy means teaching others to be self-reliant. More service is not always better service and even though the relationship may have a temporary setback, they will undoubtedly respect you and your time more for your ability to say no.
  • Beware the Sunk Cost Bias, by which our brains have difficulty letting go of things with which we have invested time, money, or energy.
    • Bonus: Check out this list of Cognitive Biases that affect our decision-making.