A while back I read this article about how Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Square and Twitter manages to leads two companies.
It turns out he works 80 hours a week...and has themes for each of his days.
Focused Work vs. Multi-Tasking
According to the article, his themes include:
Monday: Focus on management and running the company — Directional meeting at Square, Op Com meeting at Twitter. Dorsey also has his management one-on-ones on Monday.
Tuesday: Focus on product
Wednesday: Focus on marketing, communications, growth
Thursday: Focus on developers and partnerships
Friday:Focus on company and culture; recruiting.
He also works on Sundays, taking the day for thinking and strategy.
This got me thinking about the peanut butter and pasta management strategies.
According to The Corner Office at BNET, those strategies mean the following:
If you’re looking to destroy your company, try adopting a “peanut butter” approach, spreading your resources thinly across every available surface. If your company survives that, try a “pasta” strategy, in which you fling money and resources around at random to see what sticks.
You have likely employed both of these “strategies.” But the “peanut butter” approach really has me thinking, especially in this economy where we’re all doing more with less.
We live in a real-time, instant world where, if you’re not multi-tasking – or spreading your resources thinly across every available surface – you’re perceived as one who can’t manage everything.
But is the human brain equipped to cope with more than one thing at a time?
If you’re on a conference call or webinar, for example, how many of you will also check email, text a family member, or instant message a colleague? When you do that, how much of the call are you missing?
The way Dorsey handles his days is a great way to focus, manage growth, and tend to the daily issues that turn up.
How are you focusing, in order to get work accomplished?
