The Founder's Ultimate Productivity Hack

In this series, professionals share their secrets to being more productive. Read the posts here, then write your own (use #ProductivityHacks in the body).

There's nothing that will make you more productive than continually asking yourself the highest best-use question: “What is the highest impact thing I can do uniquely better than anyone else in the organization?” That should be your job description. And the answer to that question changes over time. 

Founders are particularly notorious for hanging on to roles too long, and failing to reposition themselves organizationally as their team grows. This ultimately means they spend their time less and less efficiently, doing things that others can do, perhaps even better than they can, but more importantly causing them to neglect the things that only they can do, or that only they can do that well. The company loses the benefit of their comparative competency, and worse, can be slowed down by their interference in the work of others around them. 

Frequently this evolution means giving up the kind of fast-paced, daily action roles that founders gravitate to, in favor of more strategic, or longer term investments. For me, this has meant investing more time into things like recruiting, or spending more time thinking about corporate culture and narrative.  

These are hard choices, but I do believe that when it comes to productivity, no email efficiency technique, calendaring trick, or special filing system will have near the impact of being smart about what you work on.