Better Time Management as told by Fidji Simo

Time is your most precious commodity. First Round Review sat down with Fidji Simo to find out more about her time-management superpowers. From 15-minute meetings, to meetings with yourself, we’ve pulled some of our favorite takeaways.

…and as a side note for our regular readers: First Round Review is a perfect example of a corporate blog done very, very well.

Takeaway #1: Have solo meetings to audit how you’ve been spending your time.

Simo blocks off between 30 and 60 minutes on her calendar every Monday morning to ensure that her actions are aligned with and supporting her intentions.

These days, the world moves at an unprecedented pace — but you don’t always have to keep up. Chances are you’re going to be sucked into the abyss of a never-ending information flow. That’s why its very important to dedicate some time to yourself, time to reflect and reset.

Schedule meetings…with yourself.

In fact, it was during one of these solo Monday mornings where Simo realized something important:

A couple of months ago, Simo’s big priority was to clearly lay out the product direction for Watch, Facebook’s new video destination. But two weeks into the project, she realized during her weekly Monday reflection that she’d made little progress. Reviewing her calendar, it was clear that she hadn’t been making it her top priority. She barely had an hour slotted for it each week, and no meeting scheduled with the broader team to get their input.

On the topic of executive reflection, the Boston Consulting Group’s Martin Reeves recently published a great piece in the Harvard Business Review.

Takeaway #2: Defaulting meeting time to 15 minutes instead of the usual 30/60 minutes block.

“By default, my one-on-one meetings are 15 minutes,” she says. She understands why people may want to connect in person to communicate regularly, but it’s often just a single point or decision they need to relay, which rarely necessitates a full 30-minute or 60-minute meeting.

If Facebook’s VP of Product can get things done in 15 minutes, you probably can too.

Takeaway #3: Know what’s important to you, and make sure you’re allocating your time accordingly.

Often there is a disconnect between your priorities and your day-to-day routine. If your priority is to grow your subscriber base, then all of your day-to-day activity needs to be aligned with that goal. If there’s a discrepancy between your North Star and what you see on your calendar, it’s time to make adjustments.

Takeaway #4: You don’t need to do everything, or be present at every meeting.

“All of the other things on my calendar were less important but were taking more time for legacy reasons,” she says. “There were recurring meetings that didn’t require my attendance anymore, meetings to make decisions on less important topics, etc.”

Last but not least, as a leader, it is also important for you to know that you don’t need to be omnipresent. You are, after all, still human. Realize that you don’t need to helicopter over your team, and there are often better ways to use your time.