VC Minute – quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better.
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It’s apropos that I’m releasing this episode today because Wednesdays are my GSD days. My Get Shit Done day.
Taking time boxing to its logical extreme is the GSD day. No scheduled meetings are allowed on GSD days. None.
It’s a day dedicated to deep work, focused effort on big projects or clearing out the 1 million little to do’s that accumulate all week long. As I’m writing the script, I’m doing it on a GSD day. It’s so easy to get swept up into a regular cadence of meetings. But when do you have time to get actual work done? Nights? Weekends? The 30 minutes in between random meetings is not enough. Try blocking off a whole day and jealously guard this time. Tell your team that this is your GSD day and scheduled meetings are not allowed. I’ve managed to create space for GSD days in companies both large and small. If someone put a call on my calendar on my GSD day, I would politely explain how important this whole block was for my mental health. It’s sacred to me because as work piles up, whether it’s a big project or a million little ones that weighs me down. I start to get anxious. I start to get stressed and it affects my relationships; it affects my mental health. But when I have a day that I know I can sit down, knock out those projects and clear those things out, it feels amazing. That is why GSD days are sacred.
One nuance I want to highlight is the concept of scheduled meetings versus collaboration. This is not about isolation. It’s about getting shit done. And if you need to get something done with someone, then go collaborate and work on that together. I’ve worked remotely since 2014, and so for me, that means virtually meeting with somebody in order to get something done.
Try it out. And if it works for you, could it work for your whole company? A company-wide deep-work GSD day sounds like heaven to me. And thank you GSD day for helping me bring back the VC minute.
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