From: alexhormozi
Productivity is defined as the amount of money gained for the time invested [00:00:00]. Effective time investment is crucial for financial success [00:00:09]. This article, inspired by Paul Graham’s insights from 14 years ago [00:00:57], explores the manager schedule as one of two specific types of time investment for entrepreneurs [00:01:11].
Understanding the Manager Schedule
The manager schedule is the more common way individuals invest their time and seek returns [00:01:17]. Managers typically divide their time into the smallest possible chunks, often exceeding 20 per day, ranging from 5 to 90 minutes [00:01:30].
Characteristics of the Manager Schedule
- Time as Currency: For managers, an empty time slot is a lost opportunity that did not yield a return on investment [00:01:43]. They treat time like currency [00:01:51].
- Coordination Focus: The primary cost for managers is coordinating with others’ calendars to find mutually empty slots for collaboration [00:01:53]. When two managers interact, a mutually filled slot increases productivity for both [00:02:03].
- Diverse Tasks: Managers engage with many different people and perform varied tasks throughout the day [00:02:17]. These tasks include collecting and reporting data, persuading, leading, training, encouraging, and making decisions, both one-on-one and in groups [00:02:22].
- Meeting-Driven Day: A manager’s day typically begins when they start preparing for meetings (30 minutes to an hour beforehand) and ends with their last meeting [00:02:32]. The duration of their workday is directly proportional to the length of their meetings [00:02:48].
- Objective: Maximize Chunks: The main goal for a manager is to utilize all available time chunks in a day [00:02:55]. A fully booked calendar signifies a maximally invested and productive manager [00:03:03].
Manager vs. Maker Schedules
The manager schedule contrasts sharply with the maker schedule, which is optimized for deep, uninterrupted work [00:03:13]. The problem arises when these two schedules interact, particularly when managers need to meet with makers [00:08:48].
Impact on Makers
When a manager, operating on their own schedule, requests a meeting with a maker:
- Disproportionate Cost: A short meeting costs a manager one “work unit” (e.g., 15 minutes) out of potentially 100+ daily time slots [00:09:28]. However, it can consume one of a maker’s mere two large daily work blocks, or even both depending on the topic [00:09:37].
- Workflow Disruption: A five-minute meeting can disrupt an entire morning for a maker, preventing them from doing development work, editing, or writing, as it breaks their workflow [00:00:37].
- Cognitive Load: The anticipation of a meeting, or even a brief interaction, can consume brain power and sap a maker’s ability to create [00:05:09]. This is related to the Zeigarnik effect, where open loops (like impending meetings) are remembered and distract [00:05:17].
- Vicious Cycle: If a maker falls behind, a manager’s solution might be to interrupt them more, leading to a detrimental cycle where checking in prevents the work from being done [00:10:03]. Both parties lose when this happens, as the maker isn’t producing, impacting the manager’s output responsibility [00:10:23].
Time Management and Productivity for Leaders: Solutions for Managers
To effectively manage their time and optimize team productivity, managers should adopt a three-pronged approach [00:15:30].
1. Understand the Costs Imposed on Makers
- Double Disruption: Managers should recognize that they disrupt makers twice: first by coordinating the meeting time, and second by the meeting itself [00:16:03].
- Disproportionate Impact: A meeting request costs a maker approximately 10 times more in terms of lost productivity compared to a manager [00:16:27].
- Prioritize Urgency: Managers should ensure that impromptu meetings are genuinely necessary and cannot wait for scheduled communication [00:16:39].
2. Value a Maker’s “No”
- Don’t Take Offense: If a maker declines a meeting, managers should view it as an effort to uphold their commitment to the company and deliver meaningful work, rather than a personal slight [00:17:00].
- Frame Important Meetings: If a maker’s insight is truly critical, the manager should clearly communicate the meeting’s importance and provide ample time for the maker to prepare [00:17:37].
3. Ask Your Team About Their Ideal Day
- Foster Ideal Schedules: Managers should ask their team what a maximally productive day looks like for them and strive to support that as much as possible [00:17:52]. For example, editing teams might prefer batching all meetings together to free up other days for uninterrupted work [00:18:18].
- Decouple Work: Many tasks do not require simultaneous work from everyone [00:18:51]. Managers can enable greater productivity by allowing flexibility as long as deadlines are met [00:18:58].
Organizational-Level Solutions
Organizations, particularly entrepreneurs who make high-level decisions, can implement structures to support both manager and maker productivity:
- Mandated Quiet Time: Designate specific times or days when teams cannot message or meet [00:26:45]. This applies to teams with makers (e.g., engineers, developers, writers, editors) [00:27:13]. For instance, some companies have “quiet Wednesdays” to allow uninterrupted work [00:27:01].
- Trust and Output Measurement: In remote work settings where transparency is reduced [00:27:29], organizations must extend trust and measure output over activity [00:28:18].
- Regular Meeting Audits: Implement a culture of questioning the necessity and attendance of meetings [00:33:38]. Review recurring meetings quarterly to identify opportunities for combining, shortening, or eliminating them [00:34:01]. Encourage participants to leave meetings if they are not relevant or adding value [00:34:31].
- Cost of Meetings: Recognize the cumulative financial cost of meetings. A 10-person, one-hour meeting can cost hundreds of dollars in combined salaries, equating to a significant expense that often goes unacknowledged [00:34:42].
Alex’s Manager Schedule Example
Alex, the speaker, demonstrates a V3 version of his schedule, featuring primarily maker days and one dedicated manager day [00:24:25]. His manager day is intentionally packed with meetings, introductions, coordinations, decisions, and quarterly calls [00:32:00]. This structured approach prevents feeling unproductive because he knows the day’s purpose is specifically for manager tasks, not maker work [00:24:46].
“You cannot have both absolute control and absolute freedom at the same time and so if you want freedom you have to relinquish control you have to extend trust to people.” [00:33:10]
The entrepreneurial journey involves a continuous process of relinquishing control to gain freedom [00:32:51]. This requires managers to extend trust and establish guardrails with measurable outputs [00:33:16]. Managers should continuously audit meetings to determine if they need to recur or if a system or another person can handle the task [00:33:37].
By understanding and communicating these distinct working styles, organizations can prevent time waste [00:35:37]. When managers comprehend the true cost of interrupting makers, and makers learn to protect their deep work time, companies achieve higher returns on human capital through increased output, better quality work, and greater employee satisfaction [00:35:50].