Be ruthless with your schedule
📫 On July 26th, 1775, Benjamin Franklin was named the first Postmaster General of the newly created U.S. Postal Service. His annual salary was $1000, or $40,801 in 2024 dollars.
Issue #128: Time and being an executive, volunteering for science, and the power of a brag document
By Scott Lamb
We tried an experiment at Medium last week — a full week with no meetings. We’ll write up and share more about what we learned at some point soon, but it’s part of a series of on-going experiments into how we can work more effectively as a fully remote company. (For what it’s worth, I’d recommend trying it if you’re in a position to get the whole company to do it at once — we kept a few essential meetings and people could set up time to do project work, but mostly we all got a lot more heads-down time than a typical week allows.)
The main lesson for me, echoed in “How to get ahead of everybody else by behaving like an ‘executive’” from Daniel Rizea (an executive at Google, naturally), was the key relationship between time and thinking. In many roles at work, Rizea argues, effectiveness — i.e., getting results — is the most important thing. To be effective, you need time to think and plan, and to make sure you have time, you need to manage your schedule ruthlessly. Rizea says you need at least 90 minutes to do any real, deep work (also true in my experience) so making sure your week has enough of those blocks in it to move your work forward is essential.
We’ll keep experimenting here — especially around preserving thinking time — and will let you know what we learn. I’m also building out a list of great stories that can help sharpen your thinking on remote work. If you’ve got one you’ve read and loved, reply to this email or send me note, scott@medium.com.
One more thing
I loved this story from writer Michelle Lawson about the experience of being a citizen scientist along the coast of North Devon in the U.K. It’s a small but important role — she describes the process of taking monthly water samples to monitor coastal streams — but one that’s changed her relationship to the place she lives, and a great example of how to channel one’s worries about the state of the world into positive change.
Your daily dose of practical wisdom: about getting promoted
When it comes time for your next review (or if you’re starting to look for a new job), a brag document can be an essential tool. Start keeping a living document of career accomplishments, skills, and milestones; it’s so easy to forget all of the meaningful contributions we make at work, and keeping track of them will come in handy in any career discussion (plus it just feels good).
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Edited and produced by Harris Sockel
Questions, feedback, or story suggestions? Email us: tips@medium.com
