Page 37 - Planning And Prioritizing Time Management Manual

case of fire. Nothing else.

11. Always wear your headphones. You don’t have to listen to music, but it will
discourage people to approach you.

12. Email scheduling and inbox zero. Don’t read your email first thing in the day,
don’t read it in the evening (it ruined many evenings for me), and try to do it
only 3 times a day: at 11am, 2pm and 5pm. And your email inbox is not a todo
list. Clear it: every message should be an actionable task (link it from the todo
app), a reference document (send to Evernote or archive) or should be deleted
now.

13. Same thing for phone calls. Don’t be always available. I always keep my
phone on silent and return calls in batches.

14. Batch small tasks. Like mail, phones, Facebook etc.

15. MI3. Most important three tasks (or the alternative 1 must — 3 should — 5
could). Start with the most important first thing in the morning.

16. Willpower is limited. Don’t think that willpower will help you when you get in
trouble. Make important decisions in the morning and automate everything
possible (delegate, batch etc.). US presidents don’t have to choose their menu
or suit color everyday—otherwise their willpower will be depleted at that late
hour when they should push (or not push) the red button).

17. The most powerful thing. Always ask yourself what is the most powerful thing
that you can do right now. Then apply rule #4.

18. Ship often. Don’t polish it too much—as they say in the startup world, "if you’re
not ashamed of your product, you’ve launched too late’!

19. Pressure can do wonders. Use rewards or social commitment.

20. Scheduled procrastination. Your brain needs some rest, and sometimes that
new episode from Arrow can do wonders that the smartest TED talk won’t.

21. Delete. Say No. Ignore. Don’t commit to schedules. I love the last one, it’s from
Marc Andreessen, because it allows him to meet whomever he wants on the
spot. A lot of people will hate you for this, but you’ll have time to do
relevant stuff. Do you think you’ll regret that in 20 years or doing something
for someone you don’t really care about, just to be superficially appreciated.

22. Fake incompetence. It’s a diplomatic way to apply the previous rule.

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