Checklist for team productivity
- Don’t invite someone to a meeting if an email or 1:1 conversation will do the job just as well.
- Don’t fly if you can show up virtually and get the job done.
- Instead of asking a group of people when a good time to meet might be, use a doodle.
- Send a calendar invite when you book a time.
- When you get stuck, first ask Claude, then ask a human.
- Show up on time. Leave when the work is done.
- Default to using shared docs (like Google docs) for any collaborative work.
- For repeated tasks, make a checklist. Update it and share it as you go.
- Respect synchronized time. If you can put it in a video instead of saying it live, please do.
Via Seth Godin.
My friend used to wear a shirt—to as many meetings as possible—with the message, “this meeting could have been an email.” Most of the time he was right.
Some additional suggestions:
- When someone asks if you’re available to meet, respond with three times over the next five business days. Then place blockers on the calendar for those times.
- When sharing the times for a meeting always add the timezone, ideally yours and theirs. I live in a place with an unexpected timezone (north Idaho) and most people assume I’m on Mountain time, it’s actually Pacific). I’ve just trained myself to say N:00pm Pacific.
- Any meeting where you know you won’t be able to add anything to the conversation is a meeting you should avoid attending. Ask for a recording instead.
- Writing out your problem to Claude (or ChatGPT) is almost as helpful as the answer itself. It’s similar to rubber ducking, defining the problem is the first step toward finding its solution.
- As a designer on the team I’m often the roadblock for work. I’ve made it a habit of keeping an Apple Notes doc up to date with my todos and sharing it regularly with the team so they can see my priorities.
- Meetings should be as rare as possible, especially if you’re a maker. The actual meeting time is only a small part of the equation, there’s also the pre-prep, and the post-meeting followup.