Managing yourself

I got my hands on the Manager's handbook (thanks to my manager Greg Bayer) and wanted to share rather detailed takeaways as I read it. This is the first post of many, hopefully (setting public accountability ) of the series. This is intended for experienced manager+ and leaders looking to grow their impact even more. But I do feel individual contributors will also benefit from this understanding some nuances for self management and growth.

This post covers topic on managing yourself in the context of work and outside, so a lot of things will be generally applicable to us all.

Managing time and calendar ???

1. Ruthlessly protect your time. Your time is the most limited resource.

• Resolve things over slack/email/phone call whenever someone asks for your time, instead of accepting a meeting. If a meeting is inevitable, keep it as short as possible and ensure that everyone is prepared.

2. Proactively design your calendar.

• Understand where your time is already going.
• Before start of the week, write down your top 3 priorities for the week and design your calendar to spend 80%+ of your time on those priorities.
• Spend time on the activities that will influence your teams output.
• Proactively schedule the small joys in life, lunch with a friend or taking a walk, otherwise they will never happen.

Arrive on Time and be PRESENT ????

1. Do not make others wait, but life happens, if you are going to be late, let them know. Every minute others are waiting for you is unproductive for them.
2. Be prepared with the subject of the meeting and provide full attention. Don't make others feel that the content of this meeting is relatively unimportant.

Getting things done ? ??

Getting things done, or GTD, is a simple framework for organizing your life and prioritizing effectively.

1. Our mind is made for having ideas, not for holding ideas. Our brain did not evolve to remember, remind, prioritize with more than four things. Any attempt to do so will cause anxiety.
2. Creative work takes long periods of uninterrupted time. It is disrupted by context switching.

3. You can use a digital task manager or a good old manual notebook (I personally switched from digital to manual)

Responding asynchronously ?? ??

1. Reaching out about, or responding to, one-off issues in real-time is inefficient. This wastes time and causes context switching. Batch process incoming and outgoing issues. Consider whether the topic can wait until your next 1:1.
2. Emails - Triage and batch process emails. Do not ignore emails indefinitely ??.

Top Goal ?? ??

1. Burning fires will never end, and you can often find that weeks go by and you've achieved nothing. Do not bogged down with the small immediate things and lose track of the important long-term ones.
2. Schedule an hour each day (put an event in your calendar) to work on your Top Goal only. During this time, do not respond to emails, texts, calls, and messages. Only work on your top priority. If you follow this pattern each workday, you will achieve amazing things.
3. Align on your top three goals for the week during your one-on-one with your manager. This will also help with feedback and accountability.

Mental and Physical health ?? ??

1. Managing takes an emotional toll. build a group of trusted peers to talk to. Be vulnerable in front of your team.
2. Meditation helps to quiet that voice in our head, calms mind, and improves focus. It reduces anxiety, lowers blood pressure, and improves outlook on life.
3. Well being and happiness for a lot of people depend on you. Make sure you are in your top emotional state.
4. Make sure to take time for some form of exercise and build good habits (https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits).
5. Do not ignore Nutrition - It is important to develop the ability to notice how foods interact with your unique body chemistry, become aware of which foods make you feel heavy and which foods give you energy.
6. Sleep to recharge. This should be a non negotiable. Calm your mind by not using a screen ~2 hours before you sleep

Grow self awareness ??♂?

There are three ways you can grow in self-awareness.

1. Become more self-reflective. Actually pause and point the lens of attention back at yourself.
2. Grow in self-awareness is to create an incredibly feedback-rich environment where the people around you are giving you feedback.
3. Leverage some kind of personality instrument. You could use a technical instrument like the Myers-Briggs or another personality instrument.

Gratitude ??

1. Gratitude is?strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. It helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.
2. Simple way to practicing it - Use a prompt to remind to practice in the morning. Having a Post-it note that simply says "gratitude." Every morning when you see it, repeat "I am grateful for?_" five times, and be as specific and timely as possible (names of people, specific actions they did, etc.).

Practicing appreciation ??

1. Appreciation is just gratitude stated to the person whom you feel grateful about. It's free to give, yet that simple act can make someone's day, week, or month.
2. Do it in writing (text, email, Slack) so that it's easier to give and more impactful when received. Make sure it's specific - appreciating generalities can sometimes come off as insincere.

More reading

1. Facing fear
2. Exploring the opposite
3. Radical responsibility