In 5 years, Femi Akinde, CEO of Slimtrader, has gone from working at Microsoft to growing his own company to 40 employees.
At the core of his accomplishments has been his own system of time management. We asked him to talk about his insights it and here’s what he taught us.
###There are four basics
##Stack Ranking
Q: How do you manage your time?
“Stack ranking.”
So what is stack ranking?
“I think it’s more about the most urgent need. It’s almost like saying if you step on a nail, in a doctor’s office, you’re top of the line, ahead of the line for everyone. Someone whose coming in 'cause they’re feeling eh, maybe they’re queasy, maybe they’re not. They have to be taken after the guy with the nail, right? It’s not that you’re not all needing attention, its just one guy’s got to be top, right? You have to stack-rank things.”
By prioritizing like this at the beginning of the day, instead of wasting time trying to decide what his next task should be throughout the day, Femi realized he can make sure decisions are made ahead of time.
##“Start with exercise, eat well, catch up on sleep”
Stack ranking was only one part of Femi’s morning routine. Waking up early and having a clear plan is also critical for him.
Q: what time do you wake up?
“I try to be up at 5, avoid the traffic, start swimming before 6, by 7:30 I like to be at the office and make my first set of calls. Everyone I talk to are not in the office yet.”
Even better, he realized that this morning routine eliminated the need for other things, like coffee.
“I’m not a big coffee drinker – if you exercise in the morning, wake up early, you don’t need it.”
Taken together sticking to a routine like this has allowed Femi to start each morning in a predictable and productive way. But productivity for him has to continue throughout the day.
##Always be Connected
Thinking about how to best optimize how he uses his phone and how to avoid being a bottleneck was also an important lesson for Femi.
“I live in my e-mail – only quick responses. You’re like a traffic controller – you forward to people – you don’t want to be a bottleneck”
“Have your phone on, be on all online channels that matter.”
But what ties in all of Femi’s time management processes is one core idea.
##Never Stop Improving
Between all of these techniques, Femi improve his efficiency by asking questions like “what if I woke up 2 hours earlier?” “What if I invested in more data so I can have a mobile office?” Over time he’s realized that sometimes, what looks like a cost can actually bring great improvements to productivity and time management.