With the new year in full swing, many are wondering how to follow through on their resolution to be more productive and efficient. We decided to ask some of the most efficient people we know how they stay on-task.
What does a productive day look like for the startup founders? Are they really sleeping in their offices drinking tons of coffee to be awake? Here are five very productive startup founders sharing their productive days and the useful tools they use every day:
1. Brian, Weave App, former co-founder at Dicide.com
Morning
I usually wake up around 8:15am, check the day’s schedule and glance at emails to see if there’s anything I should act on before going into the office. If nothing’s urgent, I catch the 8:30am shuttle to the office, grab a cup of coffee and start work by 9am.
Email Tricks
I go through the ~50 emails I might get in the morning, and reply to ones that take less than a minute. I snooze a ton of them according to priority. Then I’m usually left with 4-6 big task related emails for the day that will take ~1hr each. I put on headphones and hammer through them. I use Google Inbox right now.
Team Collaboration
Weave has 6 full-time team members. We use Slack, Asana, and Hackpad. No more than 1-2 team meetings a week. We always eat lunch together, so usually a lot of things that require collaborative decision-making gets hammered out there. Slack is also useful for less intense decisions.
Your Productive Secret
I go home at around 7-8pm, shower, get some tea, put on headphones, and crank through even more work. The evening hours are usually the easiest to be focused in since your meetings are over.
Take Breaks
I go to bed around 1 am everyday. I’ve been trying to go to sleep earlier, but it never works. The evenings are just really good times to do a lot of focused work. Breaks happen during lunch and dinner.
2. Heatherm, CEO, co-founder at MailTime
Morning
I’m a hipster. I wake up naturally around 8:30 to 9am. The alarm clock doesn’t work on me. I check my iPhone the moment I wake up when still in bed. Breakfast is often skipped if it’s a busy day.
Email Tricks
I deal with most of my emails on mobile. Since I’m working on an email app, I keep around 30 email apps on my phone. The constant notifications always keep me on high alert whenever I get any new messages. I really do hate the traditional format of email, that’s why I built MailTime.
We make emails as easy as text-messages, which I think is the future of email, not this Inbox Zero nonsense. I’ve never had inbox zero. I think it’s a fantasy that people make up to feel productive which actually ends up frustrating. Being efficient is the new polite in email etiquette. Always reply promptly and briefly.
Team Collaboration
We have lunch and dinner together, which sometimes will turn into a brainstorming session. We use Basecamp, Gmail and mostly MailTime.
Your Productive Secret
I use Pomodoro when I need to finish many tasks within short time. It’s basically a timer for 25 minutes. You focus for 25 minutes on one thing and then take a 5 minute break. I’m a big fan.
Take Breaks
I go to bed around 2-3 am. I work remotely with some of my team so I have to stay up late. On the other hand it’s also a good thing because this makes me feel like I keep tabs on different markets.
3. Fan Ling, Professor at UC Berkeley, founder of Tezign
Morning
I wake up 8am sharp, and check my phone right after.
Email Tricks
I hate emails. Neither Mailbox nor Google inbox is good enough for me. I’m still frustrated with my inbox. I deal with emails only once a day and I’m pretty sure now there are over 20k+ unread emails sitting there. I just leave them in the inbox. That’s my trick: you don’t have to clear them if they’re not important. Forcing yourself to clear your inbox is just a burden.
Team Collaboration
We have 8 full time teammates. We don’t have many group meetings; instead we have discussions whenever needed. We tried a lot of collaboration tools and ended up with Trello for tasks and Slack for team discussion right now.
Your Productive Secret
Do it before planning it. 🙂 I don’t plan my schedule. It’s all about getting things done. My secret is to act instead of planning. Just Do it, like Nike.
Take Breaks
Taking a walk on the Berkeley campus is very calming for me.
4. Casey Lau, co-founder, StartupsHK
Morning
7am and its a flurry of app check-ins with Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Zite, Flipboard, Prismatic, Paper then to email, Slack, Basecamp, Line, WhatsApp
Email Tricks
Replying one at a time to a massive inbox – I try to do only 3 reply checks a day – morning, mid-day and evening then turn it off to work on other tasks unless its a full email day meaning a lot of outgoing correspondence.
Team Collaboration
There are many people on my team all over the world and we hardly have meetings; everything is done by email, Skype, Slack or Basecamp. Other urgent issues may be tackled on instant messengers like Line, Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp.
Your Productive Secret
Stay off of Facebook. Some people hate that they broke up the Messenger and Groups apps, but I love it; I have been able to just do Facebook related work much faster without getting sucked into the watercooler like in the old days. And the Paper app from Facebook is great too.
Also without my iPhone, iCloud, and Handoff I couldn’t get anything done as flexibly as I do now.
Take Breaks
What is a break? LOL!
Because of the mobile Internet I find it easier to go out for a walk and do simple stuff and still feel like I’m taking a break from deskwork. I also believe highly in the 20-minute power nap or meditative state where you recharge like a smartphone. I go to bed early – I do believe in getting good sleep to stay productive, alert and of course hyper throughout the day.
5. Ben Yu , co-founder of Sprayable Energy
Morning
I always try to wake up earlier. I usually wake up between 8-10 am. First thing I do in the morning is to get out of bed and drive to take a shower. That’s all but that’s the good start of all.
Email Tricks
I use the Gmail Inbox app and basic Gmail.
Team Collaboration
I have a team of 3. We don’t have that many meetings, at most an hour or two a week. We use Trello, Gmail, and Front to work.
Your Productive Secret
Have a clear list of things to do and write down goals for the next day before going to bed. Wake up knowing the first task you want to get done. While going through the day keep a running list of things accomplished to get a good feeling for how productive the day has been. That’s my secret to stay motivated and productive.
Take Breaks
Breaks are spontaneous. I aim to get to bed by 11 every day, between 10-12 is usual.
