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Calendar Audit. The most useful thing I do each week
Calendar AuditThe most useful thing I do each week Rory Stirling ·Follow 3 min read·Mar 4, 2019-- Time and attention is our most valuable resource. The first thing I do every Monday morning is write an email to my team with a summary of what I did in the previous week. I use a set template and it takes no more than 15 mins to write. The email includes the following categories (it would naturally differ for other roles and industries): People I metEvents I attendedMarketing activity (anything related to external content, press, messaging)Fundraising (yes, VCs have investors too)Upcoming (anything specific my team should be aware of in the week ahead)Company management (meetings and projects related to the ongoing management of Connect as a firm)Portfolio management (board meeting updates / company fundraising updates / anything else that’s important)Dealflow management (new companies I met / companies I’m spending more time on)I only include a very short summary on each item. If anything warrants more detail then I make sure to discuss it in our team meeting later the same day. The benefits for me… A weekly routine for reviewing (in a structured way) how I’m spending my time — this is the most valuable part of the process. For example, it quickly becomes obvious if I’m spending too much time on internal company admin versus meeting new investment opportunities.It reminds me of the key issues I need to update my team on (i.e. the things that need to be discussed in more detail in our team meeting or 1-on-1). Without this preparation my contribution to our team meeting risks being sporadic.It clarifies my actions for the week ahead —including the people and companies I need to follow up with.The benefits for my team… It gives them insight into what I’m working onIt’s easy to skim read before our team meeting (and takes less time than a verbal update)It’s helpful context for the discussions that will take place in the team meeting itselfIt often reveals a useful piece of information that would otherwise have been too trivial to discuss in-person — this is my favourite benefitIt helps openness and collaboration (despite my team already having shared access to my diary)It signals that I care about how I use my time — I’m accountable to my teamI started doing this ‘diary audit’ for my own benefit, to make sure I was focused on the right ratio of activity over time. I really noticed the benefits so I began to share it with my team. My team also noticed the benefits and began to reciprocate. Now everyone uses the same structure. This is great — I often find the stickiest team habits are the ones that happen organically. I now get a really helpful weekly summary completed in less than 30mins on a Monday morning (15mins to write my own and 3mins to read the update from each of my team). Every team and person is different but I can highly recommend some version of this process to help you personally track your time and also promote sharing across your team. |
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