Phase 1: Multi-Channel Input Processing
Email, Slack, Meetings, Documents, Ideas, Interruptions
- Email: "Server migration needs completion by Q4"
- Slack: "Can you review the security audit?"
- Meeting: "Implement SSO for client portal"
- Idea: "Automate backup verification process"
- Interruption: "Production bug in payment gateway"
What exactly is this? What does success look like?
Vague: "Fix the website"
Clarified: "Resolve checkout page timeout error affecting mobile users (success = < 2s load time, 0 timeout errors)"
Single Action: "Reply to vendor quote request"
Project: "Migrate 50 servers to cloud infrastructure"
YES (Do Now): "Forward meeting notes to team" (1 min)
NO (Queue): "Update confluence documentation" (15 min)
• Respond to calendar invite
• Approve timesheet
• File expense report
Proceed to Phase 2
Define outcome & next actions
Project: "Implement SSO Authentication"
Outcome: All users login via Azure AD by Dec 15
Next Actions:
- Research SSO providers (2h)
- Get budget approval (30m)
- Configure Azure AD integration (4h)
- Test with pilot group (2h)
- Train support team (1h)
- Roll out company-wide
Each subtask → Phase 2
YES: API documentation, network diagrams, vendor contracts
NO: Random newsletters, spam, outdated memos
Tag, categorize, index
Document: "SSL Certificate Renewal Process"
Location: Confluence > IT Ops > Security
Tags: #ssl #certificates #security #procedures
YES: "Learn Kubernetes" (career development)
YES: "Automate CI/CD pipeline" (future improvement)
NO: Irrelevant marketing emails
Review quarterly
Phase 2: Advanced Task Prioritization & Execution
Energy, time, location, resources
High Energy Morning: Complex coding, architecture design
Low Energy Afternoon: Email responses, code reviews
Office: Collaborative work, meetings
Home: Deep work, documentation
15min between meetings: Quick admin tasks
Urgency × Importance
- Production outage affecting customers
- Security breach response
- Client demo in 2 hours, system not working
- Compliance deadline today
Task: "Database performance issue"
Delegate to: Senior DBA (has expertise)
Brief: "Queries timing out on customer portal. Need root cause and fix within 2h. Check slow query log first. Escalate if infrastructure-related."
Check-in: 1 hour
Monitor progress closely
"CEO presentation server crashed 30min before board meeting. Only I have root access and configuration knowledge. Clear calendar, execute now."
- Architecture planning for 2025
- Team training on new framework
- Refactoring legacy codebase
- Strategic vendor evaluation
- Building monitoring dashboard
Time-block for deep work
Monday 9-11am: "Architecture design - microservices migration plan"
Wednesday 2-4pm: "Documentation - API reference guide"
Friday 9-12pm: "Deep work - refactor authentication module"
Mark as "Busy" in calendar, disable notifications
High: "Migrate to microservices"
Break into:
- Document current monolith (2h)
- Identify service boundaries (3h)
- Design API contracts (4h)
- Set up service mesh (6h)
- Migrate user service (8h)
- Each subsequent service (4-6h)
"Upgrade Node.js version" (2h) → Schedule Thursday 2-4pm
"Write post-mortem report" (1h) → Schedule Tuesday 10-11am
- Vendor wants meeting about minor feature
- Routine report generation
- Password reset requests
- Scheduling coordination emails
- Low-priority bug fixes
Set expectations, deadline, format
To: Junior Developer
Task: "Generate monthly uptime report"
Context: "Management needs reliability metrics"
Deliverable: PDF with uptime %, incidents, MTTR
Deadline: End of day tomorrow
Resources: Link to monitoring dashboard, previous report template
Task | Assigned To | Due Date | Status
Monthly report | Sarah | Nov 6 | In Progress
Vendor meeting | Mark | Nov 5 | Complete
Email Batch: Process all emails 11am, 2pm, 4pm (not continuously)
Admin Batch: All expense reports, approvals on Friday 4-5pm
Meetings Batch: Tuesday/Thursday afternoons only
- Excessive Slack chitchat
- Unnecessary status meetings
- Low-value email newsletters
- Perfectionism on trivial tasks
- Over-engineering simple features
"Explore GraphQL implementation" → Not urgent now, valuable for 2025 roadmap
Unsubscribe from irrelevant newsletters, decline low-value recurring meetings, stop gold-plating internal tools
Task: "Optimize database queries"
Start: 9:00am
Actions: Analyze slow query log, add indexes, test performance
Task: DB optimization
Actual: 3.5 hours (estimated 2h)
Reason: Discovered additional N+1 queries
Blocker: "Need production DB credentials"
Impact: Cannot test query performance
Owner: Security team
Escalation: Slack DM to @security-lead
Code: Passes tests, peer reviewed, documented
Docs: Accurate, clear, complete
Infrastructure: Monitored, backed up, secured
✓ Code merged to main
✓ Documentation updated
✓ Stakeholders notified
✓ Monitoring configured
✓ Jira ticket closed
Trigger Phase 4 review
Issue: Code review found security vulnerability
Action: Add input sanitization, re-test, re-submit
Phase 3: Meeting & Communication Protocol
Synchronous vs asynchronous?
Synchronous (Meeting): Complex decisions, brainstorming, conflict resolution, sensitive topics
Asynchronous (Email/Doc): Status updates, FYI info, simple approvals, documentation
Background docs, decision framework, options
Topic: "Choose cloud provider for migration"
Pre-read (sent 24h before):
- Current infrastructure overview
- AWS vs Azure vs GCP comparison matrix
- Cost projections (3 scenarios)
- Technical requirements checklist
Decision Framework: Cost (40%), features (30%), team expertise (20%), support (10%)
0-5min: Confirm everyone read pre-read
5-15min: Discuss each option
15-30min: Debate trade-offs
30-40min: Make decision
40-45min: Define next actions
Decision: Migrate to AWS
Rationale: Best cost/performance, team has certification, superior container orchestration
Trade-offs accepted: Vendor lock-in risk
Next steps: POC by Nov 15, budget approval by Nov 20
Constraints, goals, criteria
Problem: "Reduce customer onboarding time from 14 days to 3 days"
Constraints: $50k budget, 2-month timeline, existing tech stack
Success criteria: 80% of customers complete onboarding in ≤3 days
1. Silent idea generation (10min)
2. Round-robin sharing (15min)
3. Group discussion & building (20min)
4. Dot voting on top ideas (10min)
1. Automated account provisioning (18 votes)
2. Interactive onboarding wizard (15 votes)
3. Video tutorials (12 votes)
4. Dedicated onboarding specialist (8 votes)
Next: Prototype top 2 ideas
Project: E-commerce Redesign
Status: On track (Green)
Completed: Homepage, product pages
In progress: Checkout flow
Blockers: Waiting for payment gateway API docs
Risks: Designer on leave next week
1. Quick status confirmation (5min)
2. Discuss blockers only (10min)
3. Align on priorities for next sprint (5min)
Rule: No status reports in meeting - already sent
Decisions, action items, follow-ups
Attendees: Sarah, Mark, Jennifer
Decisions: Proceed with AWS, POC in 2 weeks
Action Items:
• Mark: Create AWS account by Nov 6
• Sarah: Design architecture diagram by Nov 8
• Jennifer: Get budget approval by Nov 7
Feed back to Phase 1 for processing
"@sarah Quick Q: Which API endpoint for user authentication? Need for feature I'm building. Thanks!"
Not: "Hey" (then waiting for response before asking actual question)
Subject: Action Required: Approve Server Upgrade Plan by Nov 10
Context: Current servers EOL in Dec, need replacement
Proposal: Upgrade to 10x AWS m5.large instances
Cost: $3,200/month (15% increase)
Benefits: 40% faster, better uptime SLA
Action needed: Reply with "Approved" or questions by Nov 10
Attachments: Cost comparison, technical specs
Title: "Q1 2025 Infrastructure Roadmap - DRAFT"
Instructions: "Please review by Nov 8. Add comments for concerns, suggestions. Use suggesting mode for edits."
Sections: Goals, planned projects, resource needs, risks
Workflow: Draft → Review → Discuss comments → Finalize
• Sarah: API endpoint info (Slack, sent Nov 5 10am)
• Manager: Budget approval (Email, sent Nov 4)
• Vendor: Quote for licenses (Email, sent Nov 1)
Action: Follow up if no response in 48h
Phase 4: Continuous Review Cycles
Calendar check: 3 meetings today - prepare agendas
Email scan: 15 new - 3 urgent, rest batch for 2pm
Task review: 12 tasks in queue
• Sarah's response overdue (2 days) → Follow up now
• Budget approval pending (1 day) → Within SLA
1. Fix production bug (Q1 - urgent/important)
2. Complete architecture doc (Q2 - scheduled)
3. Review junior dev's code (Q3 - delegate follow-up)
9-11am: Fix production bug (deep work)
11-12pm: Architecture doc (focus time)
2-3pm: Meetings & email batch
3-4pm: Code review
Location: Quiet room, no interruptions
Tools: Task manager, calendar, notebook
Duration: 60 minutes
• Email: 47 messages → Process using Phase 1
• Slack: 23 unread → Respond, delegate, or archive
• Jira: 8 tickets → Update status, close completed
• Notes: 12 random notes → Clarify & file
Migration project: 65% complete, on track
API redesign: 30% complete, 1 week behind
Security audit: Waiting for external auditor
Action: Escalate API delay to manager
• 3 recurring meetings without agendas → Add agendas
• Conference next week → Block prep time
• 2 double-booked slots → Reschedule one
• "Learn Kubernetes" → Still relevant, keep
• "Blog about microservices" → Activate next month
• "Explore NoSQL options" → No longer needed, delete
When: Last Friday of month, 2-4pm
Prep: Pull reports from time tracker, project tool
Objective: Improve system reliability
KR1: 99.9% uptime → Currently 99.7% (behind)
KR2: MTTR < 30min → Currently 25min (achieved)
KR3: Zero critical bugs → 2 this month (behind)
Corrective action: Add monitoring, increase testing
Deep work: 45h (30%) - Target: 60h (40%)
Meetings: 55h (37%) - Target: 45h (30%)
Email/admin: 30h (20%)
Unplanned/reactive: 20h (13%)
Action: Decline 2 recurring meetings, batch email more
Success: Junior dev completed 5 tickets independently
Challenge: Documentation task took 2x longer than expected
Learning: Provide better templates, more context upfront
1. Change daily standup from 30min to 15min
2. Create code review checklist (reduce back-and-forth)
3. Automate deployment notifications
When: Last week of quarter, half-day offsite
Prep: Full quarter's data, feedback, market trends
Wins: Reduced downtime 40%, shipped 3 major features
Misses: Security audit delayed, hiring behind
Market shifts: AI adoption accelerating, competitors launching
Q1 Focus: Scale infrastructure, ship AI features, hire 2 engineers
Goal: Migrate to microservices
Progress: 60% complete (on track for Dec completion)
Goal: Reduce costs 20%
Progress: 15% reduction (need acceleration in Q4)
Current: Strong in backend, infrastructure
Gaps: ML/AI, Kubernetes at scale, team leadership
Plan:
• Complete K8s certification (Q1)
• Attend ML conference (Q2)
• Leadership coaching (ongoing)
Add: Notion for documentation (consolidate)
Remove: 3 redundant monitoring tools
Upgrade: CI/CD pipeline to GitHub Actions
ROI: Save 5h/week in tool switching
Someday/Maybe: 47 items → Archive 23 irrelevant, activate 5
Reference: 230 docs → Delete 80 outdated, update 15
Knowledge base: Reorganize categories, add search tags
Bottlenecks? Inefficiencies? Wins?
Bottleneck: Code review backlog (average 3-day delay)
Root cause: Only 2 senior devs, 8 juniors
Solution: Train 2 mid-level devs to review, set 24h SLA
Win: Time-blocking deep work increased productivity 30%
1. Create review training program (2 weeks)
2. Update team guidelines with 24h SLA
3. Add review metrics to dashboard
4. Measure impact after 1 month
Lesson: "Batch similar tasks saves 40% time vs context switching"
Evidence: Email processing: 90min scattered vs 30min batched
Application: Batch all admin tasks Friday 4-5pm
Document: "Team Code Review Process v2.1"
Changes:
• Added 24h SLA requirement
• Expanded reviewer pool to 4 people
• Created review checklist template
• Added escalation path for urgent reviews
Effective: December 1, 2025
Feed insights back to all phases