I’ve been virutally introduced to the creative CEO of web-based T-shirt company called Spreadshirt, named Jana Eggers, late of Intuit, Sabre, Lycos and Los Alamos National Laboratory! Founded in Germany in 2001 (but now managed by Jana out of Boston), Spreadshirt is a site where you can create your own T-shirts emblazoned with pics from your Flickr account, and other digital media you like. It’s cool.
I’ve been told more than once that Jana has a great blog that is quite relevant to Found|READers called Life on a Shirt. Today I checked it out, and imagine my delight when I found, very near the top, a post about our very own Om Malik. (I can’t link to the post directly, but if you scroll down and click on any bylined post by “Jana” you’ll get to her page. Then scroll down for Om and you’ll find it. It was published Sept. 17, 2007.) Anyway, it’s even related to this morning’s post, on the nasty topic of time management. Turns out Om struggles with this, too, just as all founders do.
When last the pair met, Jana reports that Om asked her for some advice:
“Om Malik asked me…’What should I be doing as a CEO anyway?’ …the problem comes from the big grains (vision, principles, foundation) to the small grains (hours and minutes of time). Om was [asking] about the latter… whas he going the right things on the daily and hourly basis to meet his goals? …and the big question… what was he missing?”
Jana came back with a general rule, taught to her, in part, by a career spent in sales:
“[Spend] 1/3 of your time prospecting, 1/3 of your time moving deals through the pipeline, and 1/3 of your time closing.”
Then she offered Om a more precise guide for doling out his energy into these three categories:
* 30% should be [spent on] customers+prospective customers and their use of your product with your team.
* 25% of your time should be with customers or key partners.
* 10% should be spent coaching and mentoring your team.
* 10% should be with your business’s numbers.
* 25% should be spent working on tomorrow’s vision and innovation… which includes recruiting and org work!
Jana also recommends “evaluating yourself” at the end of each week. So ask yourself these questions:
* How did you do?
* Where did you spend your time?
* Was it on your critical areas?
* What impact did you have in those areas?
I plan on asking Om how her advice has helped him. (He’s good at the mentor part, BTW.) Tell us how you spend your time, what works and what doesn’t. A last thought, from one of Jana’s readers, who left this very wise comment on her post:
Give yourself some space – plan just 90% of your time ;o)
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