How to Have All the Time in the World

+ this week’s firewall episode

Of all the many things I worry about, time isn’t one of them. I have friends and colleagues who complain about never being able to fit in all the things they want to do. They tabulate the hours in a week or a month or the rest of their lives and they get anxious. Not me. Even with everything on my plate (co-founder / CEO of a venture capital fund, founder / owner of a political consulting firm, funder and CEO of a multi-issue foundation, podcast host, adjunct professor, bookstore owner, novelist, columnist plus two teenage kids, an old dog and a young cat that plays fetch), I feel like there’s plenty of time for everything. What makes me this way? I happen to think fast, work fast and write fast, so that moves things along. But I’ve also learned some habits and routines that make a huge difference for me and may be useful to others, too. Here are 20 of them…

1. I do things right now. If I get an email or text that can be dealt with immediately, I just respond. I don’t put it off. If there’s something I know I need to do, rather than making a note to do it (for example, sending money via Zelle to the housekeeper and nanny every Tuesday), I just do it. It creates a culture of efficiency and productivity.
2. For emails that can’t be dealt with immediately, I star them and then go back to them whenever there’s a spare moment. So the goal is to have an inbox of zero at all times and to keep starred emails to no more than 5–10 on that list at any time (any more than that starts to produce stress).
3. I do as many things as possible at once. This is not a great personality trait overall and I’ve tried to be much more present in general, but there’s no reason you can’t send emails during a non-critical zoom call or no reason why you can’t go back through starred emails when you’re sitting in transit. Most things don’t require 100% of your attention or brainpower. Might as well use the remainder wisely.
4. I don’t end each workday until every email is dealt with (ideally zero starred emails left but not always), every text, every call. Dealing with it may mean sending it to someone else to handle or may mean deciding to ignore it but everything is addressed including completing the day’s to-do list and creating one for the next day.
5. I have an exit strategy for meetings. Either someone is set to pull me out after 30 or 60 minutes or I set an alarm on my phone. Either one changes the tone and gets me out on time. Once that happens, making an escape is a lot easier, which keeps me on schedule.
6. I keep macro lists of everything I’m doing in the big picture so whenever there is a free minute, I can go through the list and see what comes to mind, remember something I haven’t done yet, ask questions, check in, give people some attention, etc… There are typically about a dozen items on that list running from TVP and Strategies to the Gotham Book Prize and the podcast. I run through the list at least a few times a day.
7. I do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I would rather get a lot done at 80 or 90% quality than a little done at 100%. This also sometimes means accepting that even if someone who works for you can’t do something quite as well as you think you could do it, they’re still probably the right person for the job at hand.
8. I try not to waste time on stupid things. I spend zero time on social media. I don’t use Tik Tok. I don’t watch YouTube. I watch tv but only when I have a specific show or game in mind. I don’t fall down rabbit holes. I stop reading books after 40–50 pages if I’m not enjoying them. I also don’t have alerts or notifications for anything (other than incoming calls), either so I’m not constantly distracted (a positive side effect of OCD). And the little things I’ll use to zone out and relax tend to have a limited timeframe like a game of 2048 bricks while listening to a 40 minute podcast or something like that.
9. I try to maximize technology. So for example, I’ll usually have a print copy of whatever book I’m reading and a kindle version, so if I’m somewhere where I have a few minutes to read, it doesn’t matter where the actual book is. Generally speaking, my budget for any efficiency improving technology is high and I’m open to new programs, ideas, etc… For a while, I also tried doing everything on Zoom but at least for certain types of meetings, I’ve come to realize that in person is better, especially if I need to be fully engaged.
10. Attending some things are really important like weddings, funerals, graduations, birthdays. But you can skip most stuff: galas, cocktail parties, networking events, conferences — anything that’s mostly just a lot of small talk. There’s no tangible benefit to any of this unless being a connector is your only true value add. I go to almost nothing and if it has hurt my career, I haven’t noticed.
11. I make travel decisions based on convenience, not points or specific airlines or anything else. I take the flight that fits my schedule the best, often taking one airline one way and a different one home. If a service like CLEAR gets me through a line faster, I enroll. And if mass transit will get me somewhere faster, I take that — unless I can get a call done while going from point A to point B, which is even more valuable (also, it’s helpful to fill up car rides to and from the airport with non-critical calls you don’t really want to do but need to).
12. I start my day early. I wake up between 5 and 5:30 and go into a morning routine that, if I can get it all done, allows me to then be more focused and productive during the day. That typically includes working out, prayer, meditation, taking care of the pets, getting the kids ready for school, making breakfast, reading the newspapers, reading the Post with Lyle, etc… Also, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that my health leads to better long term productivity than just cranking through stuff endlessly so I prioritize sleep, therapy, going to the gym, meditation and eating reasonably healthy.
13. I am disciplined about sticking to my schedule. So let’s say I’m writing something and it’s going well. All I want to do is to keep writing. But if I have a hunger meeting or a founder pitch or a dentist appointment next, that’s what I’m doing next, not writing. And while things do sometimes get moved or canceled to accommodate an emergency, we are disciplined about sticking to the schedule.
14. I create a lot of home games. I have a standard place for lunch meetings (Union Square Cafe) that works because everyone loves going there. And since I only have to walk for around 20 seconds to get there, I’m happy to pay for lunch. Generally, we try to make every in person meeting at our office whenever possible (also, every person under the age of 40 wants every meeting to be a coffee; 99% of the time, it’s fine for them to just come to your office instead).
15. I accept that everything just has to get done over the course of a week, there are 168 hours in a week and I don’t need to do everything at the same precise time each day. It just all needs to get done. So if that means going to the gym at 9:30am, fine. If it means answering emails at 5am, fine. If it means writing fiction in the middle of the day and then substantive memos on a Sunday, fine. The trick was to learn not to feel awkward about it (this took awhile).
16. If it occurs to me to do something, I try to do it immediately. If I can’t, I write it down so I know to come back to it. I am always taking notes so that I can prevent things from falling through the cracks.
17. I try to talk less in meetings. Sometimes the fastest way to get a meeting done is to dominate it but oftentimes, I already know what I think and I’m trying to get facts, hear other opinions and make a decision. The more I talk, the longer it usually prolongs things, so I try to keep my mouth shut and if a 30 minute meeting can be done in 20 minutes, we try hard to do that. If a 20 minute call can be done in 10, we do that. There’s no magic to the schedule other than getting everything done. If it can be condensed, it should be.
18. If you can, keeping your life as compact as possible helps. For around 15 years, I lived and worked in the same neighborhood and my kids’ school is there too. This isn’t feasible for everyone but the tradeoffs made in terms of space were worth it for not having a commute.
19. I outsource everything I possibly can. Laundry, grocery shopping, driving, reservations, whatever it is, if there’s an option to pay someone else to do it, I choose that option. My time is more valuable than money. Obviously, this only works if you have money to spare (the rest of this list doesn’t require money, just effort and discipline). (This also applies to our hiring policies because I’d rather run a lower margin, pay good people more, recruit and retain talent, let them do their jobs and then get the time savings in return)
20. I have a macro coding framework for my schedule. It’s just in my head but there are categories for everything. I go through my schedule and code each item and what that does is alert me, over time, to areas that are being neglected and then I do something about it (this also helps ensure better work-life balance).

• 1 = anything related to the kids.
• 2 = family, friends, relationships, etc.
• 3 = things that I do to make money.
• 4 = things that fulfill me (volunteering, our foundation, writing, podcasting, teaching, mentoring, whatever).
• 5 = anything health related (physical or mental).