F2F #65: Peeling the onion

I receive a lot of questions about how I organise my day. I am well-known for running multiple projects at once, even though most of my workday is taken by MarsBased.

The unfiltered answer is that I don't really have a magic formula to spin so many plates at the same time, and the even more unfiltered answer is "I fuck up often and disappoint people frequently".

However, there are a few things I do that might be of use for other founders, if you're like me: you run multiple things at the same time, you have a short attention span, you tend to procrastinate and you're always chasing shiny things even though you have small repetitive tasks that you have to do frequently. If you're like that, this might be relevant to you.

I like describing my workday as "peeling an onion".

I start with quick small wins that don't move the needle. Simple tasks that I can quickly cross off my to-do list and require little to no effort.

In the onion analogy, these are the papery layers you can remove with bare hands. No effort, no real impact on the whole thing (you still have work to do before cooking it) but you do it even half-asleep.

In this category, I have stuff like:

• Post the comment of the day on social media.
• Send receipts to accounting.
• Read all the notifications on our project management app.
• Answer mentions on social media.
• Etc.

A few of these a day provide a small dopamine hit to the brain that helps the wheel to start turning. I feel like I've gotten a couple of small pebbles off my shoe so I can start running now.

When you can't peel the onion any further with your bare hands, and you require tools, you're entering the second level: time to tackle the hardest task of the day.

Like the first rough onion layer, this task is the one that might cause you to cry. You have to endure the pain of doing these tasks before going into the third level.

I don't have one-size-fits-all tasks here, as they're usually pretty diverse in nature. It can be reviewing a contract, having a hard conversation with a client, writing a big document or putting out a fire.

Then, we go into the third level, in which you can engage in repetitive tasks because peeling extra layers doesn't add any extra value to your day other than getting stuff done. You've already cried to your heart's content, or endured the toughest task, and now you can focus on peeling away your to-do list.

And at the very core? Where does this analogy end? Well, I don't know. Have you ever peeled an onion fully? 🤨