The most valuable lesson I learned from my dutch boss (CEO of a multinational Insurance company) is how to beat the traffic to be productive. He came in early – at 6.30 am, usually cycling to work, took a shower, got a coffee, and started working before 7.
No traffic on the roads. Saves you time. Let’s you cycle and breathe in the fresh air.
No traffic in your head. You can focus better than at any other time of the day. Focus is sharper when you pump some blood up while cycling to work.
No traffic in the office. It’s empty. There is no meeting (scheduled or unscheduled) happening for at least a couple of hours. And no staff who needs inputs from you.
No traffic of phone calls and messages. The productivity-busting machine is still sleeping. You can do real work.
He utilized his mornings to work on tasks demanding focus like analyzing problems hidden in performance data, brainstorming, drafting important communication, talking to other CXO’s (who came in early too). By the time others showed up, he had already completed half of his Pillar tasks. He was super relaxed – ready to take on challenges lined up in the day. He greeted everyone with a big smile, always. When you have finished your most important task before 9 am, you ought to smile.
I tried to summarise his “how to be productive” mantra in a graph.
- Start early and finish all focus work in solitude.
- Complete all pillar (important) tasks by 3pm.
- Finish other tasks by 5 pm and go home early.
He left work at 5 pm (unless meetings overran) – again beating the traffic.