How I trade time for the most money

“You got time tomorrow morning?”

I look over to my empty calendar. I suppose I could fit it in. But I was planning on taking a big chunk out of this project. 

“Uhh, yea I have some openings. How long you thinking?”

“Shouldn't take longer than an hour…say 10am?”

**

“Hey, I’m reaching out because John introduced us. Wanna grab a coffee sometime this week?.”

I didn't think I needed anything at the moment. But I don't want to be rude.

“Yea, I think I can make time.”

“Cool. Here’s a great spot. ADDRESS. I’ll meet you there, say 2pm?”

“Yea, that works. See you then.”

The Two Types of Calendars

Both of these exchanges represent hundreds of millions of exchanges that happen every day. What you don't see is that to one person, this type of exchange costs ten times more than the other. Let me explain. 

There are two very different ways to manage time for two very different types of work and workers. There are makers. And there are managers. I’ll start with the one that most people are familiar with - managers because this is how most of the world manages time… 

Managers

Managers divide their time into small 30-60 minute block. This gives them between 10 to 20 chunks of work time per day. And each block often differs from the block before. 

Their work often depends on meetings where they direct others. They collect data and report data to persuade, lead, train, encourage, and make other decisions.They talk to lots of different people and do many different kinds of tasks all day long. They have a pretty clear beginning and end to their work day. They basically work until their last calendar slot appointment. 

For managers, an empty time slot is a lost opportunity. For that reason, they treat time like currency. And an empty time slot means “free” to fill with manager stuff. The only real cost for them to fill it is to coordinate with another person’s empty time slot. On paper, since they ‘work’ on meetings, a mutually filled slot makes both people more productive. 

Their objective is to use up all the chunks in their day so they can maximize their time. Fair enough.

Makers

Makers, on the other hand, make up much smaller number of workers (and shrinking!). They actually make stuff. And, they cannot “make” in small 30-60 minute blocks of time. And depending on what they make, it takes very large chunks of time, half-day or full-day blocks. Therefore, they have fewer of them. They may only have 1-2 time chunks per day. And maybe 10 to 14 per week. 

The work is often similar on the outside, especially day to day. For them, they have known work inputs (like key strokes) but variable outputs (they often make something different every time.). So seldom if ever do they have a task they can finish on any given 30 minute block. Their days typically have a similar start time but variable finish. They work “open to goal.” In other words, they work until their quality output per unit time drops. Their performance decides when they’re done for the day. And compared to managers, they have a more limited time they can work until they mentally exhaust themselves. And on a larger time horizon, the best makers only switch tasks when the project they work on is finished. So their work has relatively low urgency compared to the swashbuckling manager, but, at the same time, it can have the highest importance. 

And, from the outside, a lot of their work may not look like work at all. An impressive percentage of the time doesn’t go into labor people see. It often goes into figuring out how to do the work people see. They don’t solve problems so they can work, solving is the work. They might get stuck for 45 minutes and then bang it comes to them. Sometimes, problem-solving dry spells can last days. In my case, it took me upwards of 6 months just to figure out the table of contents for my second book. That is the maker’s work. It means doing things, producing, what nobody has produced before. At least not by anyone they have access to. And it also means producing in ways maybe nobody has gone about producing it. Otherwise, they would make something else.  

Based on the immersive nature of their work, they incur a monumental cost of switching tasks. A meeting, even a short one, breaks the larger chunk into two smaller chunks, near unusable for maker’s work. A whole work unit- Poof! For example, a 10am meeting, even for 30 minutes, breaks their morning block into 2 hours and 1.5 hours. Not enough to get back into their immersive, deep, flow-dependent maker’s work.

What’s worse, when they do have something on the schedule, they “suffer” from something called the Zeigarnik effect. The Zeignarnik effect states that you will tend to remember open loops better than closed loops. Normally, this is a good thing. Like managers for instance, it helps them remember the stuff they have to do during the day. But for a maker, it’s a mind-parasite. For them, the open loops and pending tasks eat up attention, disrupts immersion, and destroys a maker’s productivity. Even if you know something happens in the afternoon, you know you must limit your morning work. You have to pay attention to make sure you end on time. Nevermind the intrusive thoughts interrupting your day…now you must also watch the clock at a regular interval which interrupts the work you do leading up to the meeting. And at some point, you begin to think about what needs to be covered in the meeting, wholly removing the maker from their project at hand. 

Makers get work done outside of meetings. To a maker, an empty calendar means full productivity. For makers, unless they have the luxury of working in a bomb-shelter, it’s easier to work when other people don’t (early morning and late evening). This limits interruptions. But it also drastically inflates the amount of time they spend on their jobs (versus the time they spend working!). They “clock in” during the day, only to be interrupted all day, then finally start working when everyone else stops!

Their objective is to maximize the blank space on their calendar so they can have as many large uninterrupted chunks of time as possible.

The Problem

Makers and managers can both exist at the same time. Problems occur when they try to work together. When a manager tries to work with a maker, not knowing how maker’s work, it leads to productivity disasters.  Since the relative time slot for the manager costs so little, and makes the manager more productive! They assume, and for good reason, it’s also true for the maker. “It’s just 30 minutes, and you’ve got the free time, what’s the big deal?” But it couldn't be further from the truth. It costs makers 10x more. A short meeting costs one measly work unit for the manager… and a giant work unit for the maker.

What’s worse, if a manager asks a maker to block time, the maker has two terrible outcomes. First, they either offend the manager (and incur other risks) by declining the invitation. Oftentimes damaging the relationship or decreasingly the likelihood of collaboration in the future (which they may need). Or, they accept, and take an unreasonably high cost for a meeting that often yields… nothing. 

Managers often assume that makers can work like they do, on demand. But this confuses the nature of managerial work and maker’s work. And given the fact most people work on manager’s schedules, it leads to huge losses in productivity and very late nights or early mornings for the maker who must accommodate everyone else’s schedule’s– mostly out of fear and politeness. 

This means managers often prevent the work they check in on! And when this happens (often), both parties lose. The manager takes a hit because the maker takes the hit. But this creates a trap. The worse the maker’s performance gets the more the manager tries to keep tabs on them! Lose lose. 

Unfortunately, this is how most of the world works. But there is a better way... 

The Solution

We attack the problem on three fronts. To the manager, to the makers, and to the organization. 

To the managers: 

Step 1: Understand both costs you put on a maker. 

First, the cost of coordinating times while they work, destroys their productivity. And once you have a time set aside, understand that the time itself eats up an entire work block. Know the difference between your work and a maker’s work. When you ask for a meeting, it costs them ten times more. You use up one of their 10 slots per week. I’m not telling you to not… meet your makers. Just that if you want your organization to be more productive, understand the costs of your requests. And when you make them, be sure it is worth it. 

Step 2: Understand the value of the Maker’s “no”

If a maker declines a meeting, do not take offense. See it as them trying to keep their larger commitment to you and others - to get the meaningful project done.   

To the makers: 

Step 1: Good managers WANT TO HELP YOU. Let them. 

Part of that responsibility lies on you to make managers aware of the differences between your work and schedules. Send this piece of content to them to help them help you. And yes, you will have to take meetings that eat your entire day sometimes. When that happens, fight fire with fire–swap to a manager’s calendar style. 

All makers have some administrative tasks to do. And since you’ve lost the chunk anyway, you can get some good feedback, serious wins, and other benefits by just dedicating the entire chunk to as many meetings and other administrative tasks as you can. That way, you can save other time blocks in the future from being made unusable. 

Step 2: Make meeting blocks. And stick to them

In addition, you can have standard “meeting” times where you accept these. And you must defend these. It’s rare that a meeting is truly urgent. See if you can push them off to the designated blocks you set aside ahead of time. Make this time available to anyone who meets with you on a regular basis, and to people who ask to meet spur of the moment. 

Since I’m an entrepreneur, I like to dedicate the first half of the day to doing maker’s work and then the second half for manager’s work. So people can meet with me pretty much every day… just after 1pm. Also, I schedule my meetings from back to front. This way, if somebody does get scheduled with me, it happens as late in the day as possible. This way, I can extend my Maker’s block a little bit. And even though the Zeigarnik effect takes hold, I can still get a little more done than I otherwise would have. 

Pro Tip: If you’re a freelancer or solopreneur. No one works on your calendar and you don't have anyone on your team to block for you. Expect no one to know how you work or why. When I had fewer means, I worked from 4am to 10am on my “maker” work, then tended to the usual fires of business during the day. This gave me 9 work blocks. 1 per day during the week and two chunks each weekend day. You may have to adopt a schedule like this. With your real work happening before or after “the managers” interruptions cease. This got me through the early years. Beyond sharing this piece of content with everyone you work with, it may be a good in-between measure. 

Step 3: Set expectations for slow responses during your Maker’s block. 

People have an amazing ability to adapt if you tell them ahead of time. People really only get upset when you don’t meet expectations. So - change them! Let everyone know this is how you work and this is when you will be responsive vs not. 

Step 4: Work when you say you work. 

You only get to claim the title of “maker” if you make stuff. Otherwise, you’re a fool and you make a fool out of anyone who calls themselves a maker.

If you have the luxury of people who respect your schedule, you owe it to them to make! If you waste time, you will confirm all their suspicions. They will think you never worked to begin with! And you damage your reputation and the reputation of all other makers. You make it less likely they will respect your work and your word in the future. 

To the organizations: 

Step 1: Consider mandated “quiet” time chunks

 During these, entire teams cannot message one another or meet. Either a time of day daily, or entire days of the week. It doesn't need to apply to the entire organization, only the ones where you have makers. Engineers. Developers. Copywriters. Builders. Presenters. Media editors. Etc. 

Step 2: Spread this content to makers and managers alike so everyone can use the same language to describe this large source of waste…and prevent it!

My goal is to increase awareness of these two types of working styles and put words to something that plagued me for a long time. And hopefully, gives words to the makers out there, whose work moves the world. So that they can share this with the people who work with them, to hopefully explain how costly “got a min?” really is.

PS - special thanks to Paul Graham who inspired this from an essay he wrote 14 years ago.