A fast paced and growing start up is an exciting place to work in but it can be pretty demanding as well on your energy and time. Managers are especially prone to burnouts and everyone is not cut out for managing or working in a growing tech start-up. And, what if you have to manage two of the fastest and hottest start-ups in the technology arena. This could be considered a major achievement and ego boost.
Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of the micro-blogging platform Twitter and the mobile payment service provider, Square is the best person who can explain how to go about doing such a job. He has managed to run the two companies and puts in 8 hour workdays on each start-up without burning out.
Jack Dorsey is currently the Chairman of Twitter and the CEO at Square. He shared the details of his workweek at the Sunday talk at the Technology conference held in Tucson, Arizona recently.
He explained that all of his workdays are based on themes and each day of the week is dedicated for specific issues. His workweek is typically divided into the following schedule:
Monday: The focus is on Management and running the company. This includes the directional meeting at Square and the Op Com meeting at Twitter. He does the management one-on-ones on Monday as well.
Tuesday: This day is for product development
Wednesday: This day the focus is on marketing, communications, growth
Thursday: The Focus is on developers and partnerships
Friday: This is reserved for company and culture. Recruiting is also done Friday.
Saturday is meant for “hiking” and Sunday is for “reflection and feedback”. Sunday also serves as the base for getting ready for next week. Dorsey works eight hours at Twitter and then walks down to the Square office which is two blocks away to work for another eight hours.
What about interruptions. Dorsey said that he does get interruptions but he explains to the concerned that this day theme is different and he needs to focus on that.
He explained that this also helps the company and the team knows where they are currently and where they were last week. The focus always remains on delivering and continuous involvement.
The Dorsey 16 hours’ workweek should serve as a blueprint for start-up enthusiasts.