This is how I work
2 min readMar 11, 2021
Like many people, I have my own working patterns and behaviours. I don’t expect others to operate in the same way. For example, I might send an email or a Slack message early in the morning or late at night, but I don’t expect a response outside ‘office hours’.
Some of these behaviours are due to my family responsibilities, some are just my personal idiosyncrasy.
- I like a full hour for lunch.
- 5pm to 8pm is family time: picking my daughters up from school, getting them ready for bed, dinner with my wife.
- I often work and send messages before 9am and after 8pm.
- I never expect an immediate response to a question. If I need a quick response, I’ll say so.
- If I want to focus on something I switch off Outlook and Slack and any other messaging tools.
- I tend to schedule meetings for 25 minutes instead of 30 minutes, starting at 5 minutes past the hour to give me and other attendees a short break between meetings.
- I try to be punctual for meetings and to finish them by the time I said they’d finish.
- I value openness and clarity. I will question others’ views and I like my own views to be questioned.
- I share early drafts of things and I often think aloud.
- I will never preface an email subject line with “URGENT! IMMEDIATE RESPONSE REQUIRED!!!”
- Friday is POETS Day.