How to prioritize time when building a Web3 startup
Web3 is an exciting, high-growth sector with enormous potential. Billions have been invested, with some of the largest VC firms in the world pouring even more into the sector in 2022 and beyond.
One of the main challenges Web3 founders encounter is, “How to prioritize time?”
Web3 founders face many of the same challenges as those who’ve built SaaS startups, social networks, and numerous other Web2-based companies in recent decades. In this article, we take a closer look at how Web3 founders can prioritize time more effectively.
Why is time management so challenging?
For startup founders, time is a challenging concept.
You are trying to do something new and build a company. In the Web3 world, you aren’t only building a company, but a community. And all of this happens under enormous time pressure. The most pressing aim for founders is to build something stable enough before the money runs out.
Not only that, founders are trying to recruit and manage a team; oversee product development; plus keep clients, partners, and stakeholders happy. Even once you’ve hired a team, you need to implement the processes and systems to ensure everyone can work together effectively. All of this is the responsibility of founders.
At the same time, some of these challenges are self-created. Founders find it hard to let go of absolute control. But at the same time, the only way to scale is to recruit a team, build processes, and let go of everything from product management to sales and customer service.
All of this depends on the amount of funding a startup has, the budget for recruiting a team, and the amount of runway the funding supports. More money equals a longer runway. Especially if your company is already generating revenue in some way. Once a startup is profitable and cash flow positive, then that takes some of the pressure off founders. Making growth more sustainable, and more under the team’s control.
Whether your startup is Web3 or Web2 (such as a SaaS company), these challenges are the same.
Are time management challenges unique to Web3 startups?
No, absolutely not.
Web3 startups may be relatively new, given that the whole sector is pretty new. However, time management challenges are normal for every startup founder. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the founder of a Web2 unicorn startup that’s just raised $200 million, or you’re embarking on a Web3 project for the first time, managing time is always going to be a challenge.
This means the solutions to these challenges are tried-and-tested. And not just in the startup world. Business and political leaders have been struggling with these same challenges for decades, centuries even. Hence the reliance on productivity solutions, such as OKRs, and other popular goal-setting tools, processes, and systems.
Achieving maximum productivity is one of the main reasons big companies bring onboard management consultants. Providing solutions to overcome these sorts of challenges is a multi-billion dollar industry.
So, let’s take a closer look at some of the most common solutions in use, and how Web3 founders can use them to overcome this timeless problem.
Prioritizing time when building a Web3 startup: best time management practices
When it comes to managing time and tasks, there are a number of ways Web3 startup founders can overcome these challenges.
Eisenhower Matrix
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had two terms in office (serving from 1953 to 1961), and was known for being incredibly productive. He led the U.S. to victory in World War II and was instrumental in the American effort to support the reconstruction of Europe and the largest peace-time expansion of the U.S. economy in history.
One approach to productivity that served Eisenhower well was drawing out a simple two-by-two box.
- Write Urgent on the top left
- On the top right, write out Not Urgent
- In the bottom left box, write Important
- And bottom right, write Not Important
It should look like the one below (leaving space to fill in the details of tasks you are dealing with right now):
Start filling it out. Put the most urgent, time-sensitive tasks in the top left. Make this your mental shortcut to really important tasks, whether these are small items to tick off the list or bigger projects that either need starting or are already in progress.
Work through it, one box at a time. This way, you are actively creating a mental list of priorities. Some urgent, some not. Making it easier to input what needs doing into to-do lists, project management tools, and other systems you are using.
HFEL
Another strategy to prioritize tasks and time, and one many founders might already be using is HFEL: Hard First, Easy Last.
Get the hardest tasks out of the way first. Use your energy in the most productive way possible. Don’t put off a hard task until the end of the day, otherwise, it could easily slide into the next day. Mission creep is the enemy of founders. That way, easier tasks roll off the to-do list more quickly because you’ve got the momentum from tackling more difficult issues first.
Core vs. Non-Core
Another way to think of this is, what’s business as usual, and what are the shiny objects?
Core tasks are the everyday responsibilities of a founder. The tasks depend on your skill set and overall role within a founding team and they may change over time, but often they are likely to be similar from one week or month to the next.
Write two lists: Core tasks, and Non-Core. Business as usual and shiny objects, in other words. Use that to create to-do lists and input that information into project management tools.
Conclusion
Building a startup isn’t easy. Web3 startups are more challenging in several ways. Such as the need to build a community around them. Founders face numerous challenges and one of those is how to manage time and prioritize tasks.
One way to overcome these challenges is by using DEIP, a creator economy protocol exclusively for intangible assets, derivatives, and Web3-based projects. Our Casimir tool is a Web3 startup builder, giving founders everything they need to start building and scaling Web3 startups on time.
