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How We Secretly Lose Control of Our Startups
Should Kids Follow in Our Founder Footsteps?
The Evolution of Entry Level Workers
Assume Everyone Will Leave in Year One
Stop Listening to Investors
Was Mortgaging My Life Worth it?
What's My Startup Worth in an Acquisition?
When Our Ambition is Our Enemy
Are Startups in a "Silent Recession"?
The 5 Types of Startup Funding
What Is Startup Funding?
Do Founders Deserve Their Profit?
Michelle Glauser on Diversity and Inclusion
The Utter STUPIDITY of "Risking it All"
Committees Are Where Progress Goes to Die
More Money (Really Means) More Problems
Why Most Founders Don't Get Rich
Investors will be Obsolete
Why is a Founder so Hard to Replace?
We Can't Grow by Saying "No"
Do People Really Want Me to Succeed?
Is the Problem the Player or the Coach?
Will Investors Bail Me Out?
The Value of Actually Getting Paid
Why do Founders Suck at Asking for Help?
Wait a Minute before Giving Away Equity
You Only Think You Work Hard
SMALL is the New Big — Embracing Efficiency in the Age of AI
The 9 Best Growth Agencies for Startups
This is BOOTSTRAPPED — 3 Strategies to Build Your Startup Without Funding
Never Share Your Net Worth
A Steady Hand in the Middle of the Storm
Risk it All vs Steady Paycheck
How About a Startup that Just Makes Money?
How to Recruit a Rockstar Advisor
Why Having Zero Experience is a Huge Asset
My Competitor Got Funded — Am I Screwed?
The Hidden Treasure of Failed Startups
If It Makes Money, It Makes Sense
Why do VCs Keep Giving Failed Founders Money?
$10K Per Month isn't Just Revenue — It's Life Support
The Ridiculous Spectrum of Investor Feedback
Startup CEOs Aren't Really CEOs
Series A, B, C, D, and E Funding: How It Works
Best Pitch Decks Ever: The Most Successful Fundraising Pitches You Need to Know
When to Raise Funds
Why Aren't Investors Responding to Me?
Should I Regret Not Raising Capital?
Unemployment Cases — Why I LOOOOOVE To Win Them So Much.
How Much to Pay Yourself
Heat-Seeking Missile: WePay’s Journey to Product-Market Fit — Interview with Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of Wepay
The R&D technique for startups: Rip off & Duplicate
Why Some Startups Win.
Chapter #1: First Steps To Validate Your Business Idea
Product Users, Not Ideas, Will Determine Your Startup’s Fate
Drop Your Free Tier
Your Advisors Are Probably Wrong
Growth Isn't Always Good
How to Shut Down Gracefully
How Does My Startup Get Acquired?
Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
How to Pick the Wrong Co-Founder
Staying Small While Going Big
Investors are NOT on Our Side of the Table
Who am I Really Competing Against?
Why Can't Founders Replace Themselves?
Actually, We Have Plenty of Time
Quitting vs Letting Go
How Startups Actually Get Bought
What if I'm Building the Wrong Product?
Are Founders Driven by Fear or Greed?
Why I'm Either Working or Feeling Guilty
Startup Financial Assumptions
Why Every Kid Should be a Startup Founder
We Only Have to be Right Once
If a Startup Sinks, Founders Go Down With it
Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem at Startup Companies?
Founder Exits are Hard Work and Good Fortune, Not "Good Luck"
Finalizing Startup Projections
All Founders are Beloved In Good Times
Our Startup Culture of Entitlement
The Bullshit Case for Raising Capital
How do We Manage Our Founder Flaws?
What If my plan for retirement is "never retire"?
Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life
6 Similarities between Startup Founders and Pro Athletes
All Founders Make Bad Decisions — and That's OK
Startup Board Negotiations: How do I tell the board I need a new deal?
Founder Sacrifice — At What Point Have I Gone Too Far?
Youth Entrepreneurship: Can Middle Schoolers be Founders?
Living the Founder Legend Isn't so Fun
Why Do VC Funded Startups Love "Fake Growth?"
How Should I Share My Wealth with Family?
How Many Deaths Can a Startup Survive?
This is Probably Your Last Success
Why Do We Still Have Full-Time Employees?
The Case Against Full Transparency
Should I Feel Guilty for Failing?
Always Take Money off the Table

The Startups.co Guide : Get The Most From Your Calendar (Part 4/6)

Wil Schroter

The Startups.co Guide : Get The Most From Your Calendar (Part 4/6)

CHAPTER FOUR: Block Out Time Proactively

In This Chapter:

-How to control your calendar
-How to create a schedule that works for you
-Our example Productivity Calendar template


Your calendar shouldn’t be an open season free for all of appointments.  Each of us have a special cadence in our day that involves times when we’re most productive, time we want for personal reasons and time when we’re least productive. These are often the same times day in and day out – so why not create a calendar template that aligns your scheduling with your lifestyle?

But wait, I can’t control my Calendar!

It’s true, life throws lots of stuff at us daily.  Our client calls for an immediate meeting. Our one co-worker strangely schedules meetings at stupid early times in the morning. We’re called upon to leave town and attend Wizard School at Hogwarts.  We get it.

The reality though is most people don’t create a set of guidelines around their calendar to begin with, so ultimately things just fall where they may.  Even if you can’t stick to it all the time, building a Calendar Template is a great way to start creating order out of the chaos of random meetings.

Create Calendar Template “Blocks”

A Calendar Template is what your “ideal week” looks like.  It’s the target you want every week to start with and what you (or your assistant) will do everything possible to work toward.  Each “Block” within the template represents how you want to spend your time throughout the day.  For example:

  • High Productivity Time.  We all have a couple hours of the day where we are most alert, most productive.  That may be all of two hours each day, but man it’s an important two hours.  The first thing you want to isolate is your high productivity time.  Maybe it’s after the gym, or early in the morning, or at 2 in the morning.  Regardless, you want to make sure nothing runs over those slots because you can’t manufacture that energy and focus at any other time.
  • Personal Time.  For most busy professionals “personal time” is what’s left over when everything else is factored in.  This never ends well.  By blocking off a specific amount of personal time you get a few huge benefits.  First, you can feel good knowing that you have that time to do what’s important to you – whether it’s hitting the gym or playing with your kid.  As importantly, you know that if that time is blocked out ahead of time, you’ve already committed it, meaning it’s not interfering with your work which is what usually eats it up to begin with.
  • Low Productivity Time.  You love to eat a large dinner portion lasagna wrapped in Taco Bell shells dipped in ranch sauce every day for lunch.  While it gives you a killer six pack it also puts you in nappy nap time every day from around 1p – 2p.  Should you stop eating that? Of course not!  But you should definitely block out time each day that is Low Productivity Time to work on stuff that just doesn’t require much energy.
  • Meeting Time.  Building in a window for meetings each day helps you mentally prepare for the break that meetings cause each day the way a set lunch time helps you prepare for a break at noon each day.  The more you can stack your meetings within a fixed period of time each day the better you’ll be able to optimize the rest of your calendar.

Screen Shot 2017-03-15 at 12.05.29 AM

 

Click Here to view a live example of our Calendar Template.

These are just a starting point, and it doesn’t have to be super detailed, but simply laying out your day and applying a few of these blocks to portions of your day will go for miles in helping you create a more structured day that aligns with what you care about and what matters to you.

As importantly, this is invaluable information for your assistant who would prefer to help you do the things you actually want to do versus randomly sending you in every direction at once.

Key Takeaway:

Create a schedule for the times you work best during the day—and stick with it. You will be more productive, and be able to accomplish more throughout the day.

All chapters:

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