Stop doing all of that…you’re in your own way.

I was talking with a coach I had hired, and he was giving me advice about how to free up my time.

It was the same coach who had pushed me to start posting on LinkedIn every day and had offered countless other advice that made a huge difference in the way I operated my business

I took his advice and canceled a number of weekly meetings I had with my direct reports, and I was amazed at how much better I felt about my time.

At the same time…there are people who I consistently meet every week 1-on-1 in our company, and those meetings have a huge impact.

Today, I’m going to share my experience with 1-on-1 meetings…
and how to get the most of the ones that you keep on your calendar.

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How many hours of sleep do you get each night?

I’m fortunate that I consistently get 8 - 9 hours of sleep, though I hear that may change once my wife and I have kids 😅

If you ever observe your sleep data, you’ll notice a pattern:

I always found it interesting that the unconscious mind goes through these peaks and valleys of intensity with sleep phases.

Why not keep everything at a flat middle ground? Or why not start with a lot of deep sleep, and gradually decrease intensity till you wake?

Well, I don’t have the science behind it…but I’ve come to learn that our waking hours are no different.

See…there’s only so much time that we can spend on “deep work”. Most often, deep work consists of 1-2 hour bursts, followed by rest.

You may not realize it, but your mind has this need for recovery in the same way that your body does.

Every minute of deep work involves a debt to be repaid in recovery.

This all really clicked for me when I read the book The Power of Full Engagement, where the author broke down your energies via these 4 quadrants

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I was baffled. I hadn’t heard anything like it before.

Really? You don’t meet with any of your direct reports regularly?

I was having drinks with my most successful client…a 4th-time founder who has worked with some of the biggest brands I’ve ever seen.

He was telling me how he never meets with any of the 7 direct reports that he manages, except for their quarterly reviews.

How do you stay coordinated? How do you ensure they are prioritizing the right projects?

Group meetings. Slack messages, Loom videos.

These were all methods he was using to get what he needed out of his staff without meeting live 1-on-1.

And if there’s an issue that needs a live meeting, he’ll take it…but only when it’s needed.

I decided to give it a try, and instantly felt more relaxed…though there certainly were some kinks to work out.

I’ve found that it makes a big difference when you can receive an update via some sort of dashboard, and via assets that will allow you to stay in Slack vs having to access another platform.

Of the 6 people that I now actively manage, only 2 I meet with 1-on-1 once a week…and when we meet, we maximize our time together via a specific system.

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I’m not a believer in getting rid of all 1-on-1 meetings.

There is no doubt that they can be very effective in getting strong alignment out of the people that you work with.

I have a notion doc titled “Josh & [name]” for those who I meet with each week.

Before the meeting, either of us will copy over the items that were in discussion from last week, and add any new items that came up.

Then during the meeting, we’ll go through the list from top to bottom, leaving notes for action items on both ends.

Throughout the week, instead of hopping again on a live meeting, we’ll each markdown notes on what we want to bring up live in the following week…and if it’s quick enough, we’ll just hammer out the details over Slack.

We are also a big fan of recording our meetings.

This gives each of us the ability to refer back to keynotes/instructions if anything is missed…and can always be watched on 2x.

With these steps, I’ve found it to be effective enough to last a whole week of projects and coordination

Reducing my meeting time from 6 meetings/week to 2 meetings a week has made a big difference in my energy levels, and time that I can spend working on deep work.

What has your experience been with 1-on-1 meetings?

Do you believe managers should meet with their direct reports each week?

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Have a great weekend,

Till next time,
Josh