PRODUCTIVITY
A DAY AT HOME
IS VALUABLE
“I work from home on
a Wednesday every week.
I get up, I don’t have to
travel anywhere, I don’t
have to get dressed, I don’t
have to worry about what
my hair looks like, or any
of that external stuff that
doesn’t really matter to
your job but still takes time
and effort, and I sit down
with my laptop. Everybody
in my team knows that
that’s the day their inboxes
will fill up with things I
need to delegate or send
on. I also use that day for
bigger things I find much
harder to get done if I’m
having to stop every now
and again for a meeting.”
GIVE YOURSELF
SPACE
“I live on a garden square
and every morning I walk
through the garden to get
to the Tube to go to work.
I have a rule I started last
year: I do not look at my
phone in the garden.
It takes me one or two
minutes to walk across it,
not long, but it’s this
moment that’s just for me.
I look around and see the
changing seasons, the
squirrels running around
KEEP A ROLLING
TO-DO LIST
“I did, at one time, have an
Action Required folder
that I’d put emails in. What
I realised is that, for me, it
was a case of ‘out of sight,
out of mind’. So I keep
emails about things that
I need to address in my
inbox. Those messages can
easily get buried, so I use
a text file to make a note of
everything I need to do.”
GET YOUR TEAM
BEHIND YOU
“I certainly made mistakes
when learning to be a
leader. I had to recognise
that other people are not
motivated like me – and
they don’t necessarily
know that they’re doing
a good job unless you’re
explicit about saying:
‘I think you’re doing a really
good job.’ So being
more proactive about
verbalising those things
has made a massive
difference to the team.”
KEEP MEETINGS
TO THE POINT
“There are some people on
my team who tend to go
into a lot of detail and
narrative when presenting
data. That’s something I
find challenging, unless it’s
the point of the meeting.
I like to focus on strategy
and action. We can expand
the conversation if
necessary, but I’m not
a fan of going through
everything just ‘because’.”
EMBRACE SIRI,
EMBRACE ALARMS
“I had never used Siri until
I saw a friend go ‘Set alarm,
8am’ – and I was like, ‘Oh,
that’s so useful!’ Manually
it takes about seven
presses to get there. If it’s
something urgent, I’ll set
an alarm rather than a
reminder, as you can still
put text against an alarm.
I do that because I have to
actively turn it off.”
WAKING UP TO THE
WORKING WEEK
“I tend to group my
meetings into Tuesdays
and Thursdays. On
Mondays I might still have
meetings, but they’ll tend
to be internal meetings,
so that I’m around for the
team. Fridays are wild-card
day. But whatever the day,
I wake up at around 6am.
People often wonder how
I do it – but really I’m
just a morning person.”
HAVE A ‘ONE
TOUCH’ POLICY
“I have a copy of David
Allen’s Getting Things
Done. Ironically, I never
finished it, but I try to
apply the idea of a piece
of paper not being in your
hand more than once
to emails: if it’s quick to
answer, I answer it
immediately; if it needs
to go to someone else,
it gets sent immediately.”
‘I did, at one
time, have an
Action Required
folder that I’d
put emails in.
What I realised
is that, for me, it
was a case
of out of sight,
out of mind’
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