I find myself prioritizing the stuff that falls under three categories:
(1) Helps CoVenture grow:
- doing a new deal
- talking to a new potential LP (just to meet for when we raise our next fund)
- helping a portfolio company raise follow on capital
(2) Things that require less cognitive energy
- these are easy tasks that are well defined and don’t take much time/organization
(3) Things that create self-validation or that are fun
- giving talks on panels (even though I know it’s unlikely I see new deals at said event)
- blogging
- tweeting
- reading blogs and articles
But the things that are most important are often not in one of those three buckets. The things that are most necessary are often things like: setting up a new bank account, reading a legal document, work on recruiting engineers, negotiating, due diligence on a company, working on an excel model or a powerpoint, etc.
These hugely important tasks often fall to the bottom of my inbox and I do them “later” after I find something else “important” to do.
The greatest gift of being an entrepreneur is the choice of how to spend your time. The biggest responsibility of an entrepreneur is making sure with that choice, you choose things that really should be your priority.
I probably have better discipline than most, but still need to keep working on it. I suspect I’m not the only one.
