On a high level, I am responsible for the growth of Hubstaff. The biggest question I ask is, “What does Hubstaff need in order to grow?”. That might be marketing, product, support, analytics, culture, hiring, or something in-between. I develop most of the strategy for the company, and how the company operates internally and externally.
The 6 main beliefs that drive my work as CEO
How I schedule my days and the tasks I choose to do each day are very much a personal choice and come down to my personal beliefs about work and productivity. Knowing this will help you understand why I prioritize some things over others, and how I structure my day.
1. Distractions are the enemy
2. Default to no – protect your deep work time.
3. Embrace being alone
4. No more meetings
5. Trust the data
6. People don’t change
How to Prioritize The Right Work
Every minute of every day is a choice. Some days are spent writing blog posts, managing people, others are spent building plans or doing admin work. If I hit a productive pocket, then I go to deep work – answering emails, entering stats, looking at funnels, management, or accounting. What is going to provide the most ROI for the business? Sometimes this means revenue growth, but most of the time it does not.
How The Day is Structured
A good practice for CEOs is to start with a scan and analysis. By 8:30am, I get my email inbox knocked down. I answer anywhere between 15-25 customer emails per day. If the question is technical, I simply pass the question on to the support team. Being realistic about this fact helps me to stay structured.
From 12:30 to 2pm, I shut off email and Slack for deep work. After that, I answer questions or work on smaller admin tasks such as contracts, metrics, accounting, and hiring. I like doing these items towards the end of the day because they can pile up. I knock them out once per day vs. dealing with them multiple times during the day.
Around 4:45pm, I stop working and start cooking for the family. We eat and then I run the kids around for a while. Then it’s TV time, where we’ll watch kids sports movies like Sandlot or Miracle. I use this time to hang with the kids and relax with them. We go to bed early, like 8:30 or so, and I love my sleep.
Responsibilities
I am getting questions from every department, involved in decision-making, having things run by me, and participating in meetings. But really, I am thinking about next moves, looking at trends, trying to determine where we are going to go, and how. How are we going to get customers ? How are we going to answer questions on the support team? How do we want to operate?
I’ve spent all day working on this post that you are currently reading, and it’s been a pretty busy few days for me. One of the things that has largely fallen off is the amount of tactical work that I do. For example, I don’t really work on ads, copywriting, or SEO, but I do look at the reports, though, and provide direction.
Key Takeaway
I try to put first things first and hard things first. I say no a lot. I work alone and focus on the work that I enjoy (which tends to be the same work I am good at). I double down on what I see working and try to look for trends. I try to structure my day around productivity and enjoyment.
