The video discusses how to prioritize time in the context of working on a startup. The speaker emphasizes the importance of using time effectively to maximize a startup's chance for success. They distinguish between real progress, which involves tasks that contribute to the growth of a startup's primary KPI, and fake progress, which includes attending conferences and optimizing irrelevant metrics. Task prioritization is crucial for productivity and success, and it is important to prioritize tasks that align with the primary KPI and involve talking to users, building products, converting users into customers, and delivering solutions to increase revenue. Grading the impact and complexity of tasks is key to effective prioritization. Hitting weekly goals consistently is a sign of good prioritization, and writing weekly updates helps identify areas for improvement. The Maker's/Manager's schedule, which involves dedicating continuous chunks of time to different types of tasks, is recommended. Being decisive is crucial in a fast-moving startup environment.
Introduction
- The video discusses how to prioritize time in the context of working on a startup.
- The speaker emphasizes the importance of using time effectively to maximize a startup's chance for success.
- They acknowledge that everyone has different situations and cannot provide generic advice on how to allocate time across various aspects of life.
- However, they aim to help viewers figure out how to spend the time they have allocated to their startup in the most impactful way.
Real vs. fake progress
Real vs. fake progress in startups:
- Real progress: tasks that contribute to the growth of a startup's primary KPI (revenue, active users)
- Real progress involves talking to users and iterating the product
- Fake progress: attending conferences, winning awards, optimizing irrelevant metrics
- Focus should be on delivering value to customers and increasing the KPI.
Task prioritization
Task prioritization is crucial for productivity and success. It is important to determine if you are prioritizing the right tasks that will help you achieve your goals. To prevent low-value work from creeping into your schedule, keep a spreadsheet of ideas that align with your primary key performance indicator (KPI). Prioritize tasks that involve talking to users, building products, converting users into customers, providing insights on product roadmap, and delivering solutions to increase revenue. The video emphasizes the need to avoid immediately acting on every idea and instead, grading tasks based on their potential impact.
Grading impact
The most profound aspect of the topic is the importance of grading the impact of tasks to prioritize time effectively.
Key points:
- Tasks can be categorized as high, medium, or low impact based on their likelihood of helping achieve a weekly goal.
- Meeting potential customers in person is the most impactful task, followed by filling up the pipeline and doing video demos.
- It is important to focus on user interaction rather than getting caught up in technical tasks.
- The complexity and time required to complete a task should also be considered when prioritizing.
- A systematic approach is needed to rank tasks within each category.
Grading complexity
The most profound aspect of grading complexity is categorizing tasks based on their impact and difficulty, and prioritizing them accordingly.
Key points:
- Tasks should be categorized into easy, medium, and hard based on the time required to complete them.
- Prioritization should consider both the impact and complexity of tasks.
- Focus on tasks that have high impact and are easy to complete.
- Next, prioritize tasks with high impact and medium complexity.
- Avoid tasks with low probability of helping achieve goals and are difficult to complete.
- Do not take on too many tasks at once to ensure completion and progress.
How well am I prioritizing?
- Hitting weekly goals consistently is a sign of good prioritization
- Many people struggle with prioritization and their progress graph shows a decline or stability at the bottom
- Finding ways to improve prioritization is important
- Determining if you are working on the right things is crucial
Weekly updates
The importance of writing weekly updates for effective task prioritization is discussed. Key components of a weekly update include setting goals, identifying obstacles, describing actions taken, and evaluating impact and learnings. Regularly reviewing past updates helps identify areas for improvement and avoid repetitive tasks. Breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable ones is suggested if they consistently remain incomplete within the given time frame.
Maker's/manager's schedule
The Maker's/Manager's schedule is a modified version of the schedule popularized by Paul Graham, which emphasizes the high context switching costs between different types of tasks. To avoid wasting time, it is recommended to have continuous chunks of time devoted to each type of task. This schedule is particularly important for solo founders who don't have the opportunity to divide the work among multiple people.
Key points:
- High context switching costs exist between tasks like coding and meetings.
- It is difficult to restart and ramp back up on a task, especially coding.
- Exiting a task when things are finally flowing is costly.
- Continuous chunks of time dedicated to each type of task are recommended.
- Some people split their week into coding and meeting days, while others split their day in half.
- The Maker's/Manager's schedule is crucial for solo founders.
Be decisive
Being decisive is crucial in a fast-moving startup environment. Key points include:
- Making decisions quickly and thoughtfully is important to prove product viability and scale the business.
- Indecisiveness wastes time, so it's better to make a wrong choice and learn from it.
- Taking forever to choose tasks and working on low-value activities is counterproductive.
Conclusion
In conclusion:
- Prioritize tasks that directly impact your primary KPI
- Focus on talking to users and building products that contribute to meeting weekly goals