9 Rules for Working Smarter

What's up, everyone. This is Alex Lieberman, co-founder and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew. Welcome back to Founder’s Journal, my personal audio diary, where I give you, the business builder, the tools you need to think better in order to build better, whether that's building a business, a team, or a new product. Today, I am giving you my nine rules for working smart. Also, make sure to listen to the end of the episode, because I'm also giving away free shit. Let's hop into it. 

My 9 rules for working smarter

There is so much self-help BS out there about how to be a good worker. So much so that I was almost inclined not to do an episode about this very topic, but I decided that I would, for one simple reason: most people I have met are not smart workers, even if they think they are. That includes me by the way, and the fastest way for them to go from good to great is to work smarter. That said, I set one ground rule for this episode so that I didn't feel like a self-help guru. Every recommendation that I give is something that I actually do as a founder and Executive Chairman to be a smarter worker in my life. 

A quick caveat

Now, before telling you my nine Rules for Working smart, I need to get something off my chest. I hear a lot of people these days say that you need to work smart, not hard or smart work is the only thing, hard work doesn't matter. And I gotta be honest. I kind of think that's bullshit. The reason I think that's bullshit is because I have never met a successful person in my life who didn't work hard. This is how I visualize it to myself: Smart work is making the most of the time you have. It's how you perform when you step up to the plate, hard work is increasing the time you have. It's how many times you step up to the plate. I believe you need both to be successful, but here's the kicker. I think focusing 80% of your time on working smarter is the optimal strategy for most people, because most people are foolish with their time. It's like the old tale that human beings use only 18% of their total brain capacity. Now that's not a true stat, but I think it applies here, which is, I believe most professionals are highly inefficient with the time they're already spending working. So before thinking about working more, let's get better at the time you already have. Smart work is the combination of doing the right work and working the right way, which brings me to my nine rules. These are nine things that I do every single day to make the most of my time spent working.

#1: Protect your time

Number one, protect your time. Meetings are one of the greatest work tragedies. Most of them are a waste of time and it takes control of your calendar away from you. Be ruthless about only meeting when it makes sense. Leave most other things, to emails, memos, or other asynchronous activities that allow everyone to control their calendar. 

#2: Create the right environment

Rule two: Create the right environment. Attention and time are scarce. Distractions are abundant. If you don't protect your attention, someone or something else will steal it from you. I know that I'm easily distracted. And I also know that social platforms are built to induce dopamine hits. I have completely removed distractions from my environment because I know I cannot resist the temptation. I use SelfControl, an app on my computer, which blocks a list of websites for a period of time that I decide. I had my  fiancée set a new passcode on my iPhone so during the workday, I only have access to it if I ask her. That is not a joke. And I removed Slack from my computer so I don't get sucked into the pings and dings because in reality, very, very little ever requires immediate attention. 

#3: Be great at prioritizing (here’s how)

Rule number three, be great at prioritizing. There are all different types of systems to prioritize your time. And what's most important is for you to find a system that works for you and that you can stick to. I personally love the Eisenhower Matrix. Basically what you do is you place all of the tasks that you're thinking of doing on a two-by-two grid: urgent and important, urgent and not important, not urgent and important, and not urgent and not important. It's harder to understand over audio. If you draw it on paper, it's very easy. Urgent and important are the things that I decide to do. Urgent and not important are the things I delegate to others. Not urgent and important is something I do, but do it later. And not urgent and not important are tasks that I delete altogether.

#4: Force reflection time

Next up, rule number four: Force reflection time. I said this in a recent Founder's Journal, when talking about what of Ray Dalio's principles, but you cannot have progress without reflection. You need to reflect on the work you're doing constantly to identify ways you can get even smarter with your work, whether that means reprioritizing or further optimizing your environment to work for you. And so I've a very simple strategy that forces reflection. Every morning, I set a timer and I free write in my journal. And during the journal session, I write down a reflection about the last 24 hours. What I think went well, what I learned, and where there's room for improvement. Creating awareness is the key to making the next 24 hours better than the previous.

#5: Set a pre-work routine

Now rule number five: Set your pre-work routine. If you talk to any professional athlete, they will tell you the importance of a pre-shot routine. You see it when a golfer takes practice swings and lines up before a shot. You see it when a kicker takes a very intentional number of steps back and to the side before attempting a field goal. And the same thing goes in work. Muscle memory and momentum is important in anything that requires high performance, which is why I try to do the same exact thing. Every single day. I wake up at 7:00 AM. I feed and walk my dog. I make an Americano. I do a 30-minute workout. I shower. And then I start my 10-minute journal. And I do this probably 80% of my days. And guess what? The 20% of days that I don't do it, I don't feel nearly as good. 

#6: Work like a lion

Next up, rule number six. Work like a lion. Naval Ravikant has this great quote where he says, “Work like a lion, not a cow.” And the idea here is that we should work like we're lions hunting versus marathoners running. Do very intense focused work for a period of time and then rest for a while. This applies to work over the long-term and the short-term. And the way I do this on a daily basis is by using the Pomodoro method, which I've talked about in a previous Founder’s Journal. I work in 25 minute chunks and then take a five minute break. And then after four cycles of 25 and five, I take an even longer break. 

#7: Visualize your day

Rule number seven: Visualize your day. This is the other part of my journaling process that I was talking about earlier. Once I've finished reflecting on the previous 24 hours, I map out the next 24 hours. It reminds me of how the famous rock climber Alex Honnold mapped out a multi-hour climbing route, where he used no rope. It's called free soloing. My version is significantly Lamer, but I visualize my day from beginning to end. I create blocks in my calendar around the type of work I'm doing at each hour. And I know if I follow this plan, I'll have a good day. This process mostly holds me accountable to not losing track of time and only working on the same single task for many hours straight.

#8: Map your day to your body

Next up, rule eight: Map your day to your body. Just like we need to have an awareness of our priorities and our day, we need to have an awareness of our body. We all get energy from different types of work, and we're all most effective at different times of the day. Map your most important work to the times of day that your body is highest energy, highest focus, and most effective. For me, I know that I’m most effective in the morning and after 5:00 PM, I'm just a different person.

#9: Make an iron-clad email system

And finally, rule number nine: Have an iron-clad email system. Email is the bane of so many workers' existence. It's overwhelming. And people feel the anxiety of letting emails, linger or not doing anything else until hitting inbox zero. Similar to prioritizing, there are so many systems for being in control of your inbox, and you just need to figure out the system that works for you. My system is simple. I only answer emails once a day. I answer them after 5:00 PM because I find they require the least focus, so I spend time on them when going back to the last rule, my body has the least energy. And I don't answer emails in chronological order. I answer emails in order of importance. I prioritize answering important over hitting inbox zero. Now there are a few other email systems that close friends of mine use. And so I just want to share them. One is Boomerang, which is software that lets you schedule emails that you answer right now, but then send them at some point in the future. And Boomerang also will delete emails that you receive right now so your inbox doesn't stack up with a bunch of emails and instead it re-delivers old emails to you at some point in the future. The second app is Superhuman, which a bunch of founder, friends of mine use and supposedly it's a far more efficient app than Gmail or Outlook for organizing your inbox.

I want to hear from you

And those are my nine rules for working smarter. So to wrap, just remember: Hard work is important, but smart work is where you can make your greatest gains. As a worker, spend some time with my nine rules and reach out to me at alex@morningbrew.com. If you have any thoughts or questions. And finally, like I mentioned, at the top, I'm giving away free shit. And this is your last opportunity to have the chance to win. Here's how it's going to work. I told you on a recent episode how impactful Ray Dalio's book Principles has been on me. Well, I want to spread the knowledge. So I am giving away five copies of principles to qualify. It'll literally take one minute. First, rate and review Founder’s Journal on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Second, email me at alex@morningbrew.com with a screenshot of your review. I will be picking the five lucky winners at the end of this week. Now, lastly, before you go, I need to show some love for the amazing team behind this show. Founder’s Journal is produced and engineered by Dan Bouza. Our associate producer is Bella Hutchins. Brian Henry, our executive producer, Alan Haburchak is Morning Brew’s director of audio. Holly Van Leuven is our fact checker. Noah Friedman is our video editor and producer. And I'm your host, Alex Lieberman. Thanks again for listening and best of luck in the giveaway.