This is part of a 30 posts in 30 days series chronicling my first 30 days in my new role as President of Hanapin Marketing.
Some people find it easy to be organized and for others it is easier to be flexible. I am finding that there has to be both in any given day to get everything done as well as address fires or be accessible to those that could use some of your time.
In attempt to be both (organized and flexible) I try to plan out what I am doing each day, in a general sense, as well as the 1-3 things that I must get done in order to go home. These are the things that no matter how busy I am I have to get them done. Therefore I force myself to stay rooted at my desk until I knock them out. This way I know that when I leave a few things on my to do list when I clock out, I haven’t missed any of the things that I feel will make a major impact on the company.
I am also trying to have at least 2-hours during the day where I don’t have anything scheduled. This is so I can build stuff or meet with team members on pressing issues. Sometimes I am better at this than others. What I find helps is to simply block the same time out on my schedule every week so I get into a rhythm and people can’t take the time slots on my schedule. I try to do this time during the meat of the day so I am available to anyone, but this coming week that is pretty much impossible. This is something I continue to work on.
Here’s my plan for next week.
Monday
Monday’s are typically a bit busier than other days of the week for me. We start the day with a 15-20 meeting to keep everyone in the loop with the status of major projects and big news from the previous week. Then just the Paid Search department stays for another ~45 minutes and updates me and the ADoPS on their accounts. This includes the most important thing done last week, results compared to goals and the action plan for the coming week. This Monday I also have an employee review, a meeting on new tools for Hero Pro and a session on how to continue to improve our CRO offering.
Must Dos:
- Write email to team re: follow up from meeting with CEO last week
- Talk to Director of Sales re: few client/prospect follow ups
- Meet with T&C Director re: the next ADoPS
- Send department meeting agenda
- Blog post
Time Blocked Off: 6:00-8:00am.
Tuesday
This is my first department meeting day. Well, I have had my department meetings on Tuesday for over a year. But it is my first time sitting in on all department meetings. The CEO and I will conduct these meetings together for the next 6 rounds. He will lead the first two, while I figure out what we are working on and how to help the leadership team hit their goals, and the last 4 I will be leading while the CEO hopefully twiddles his thumbs and pats himself on the back for the smart decision he made (hopefully).
Must Dos:
- 1:1 with 2 team members re: my recent transition
- Dry run of presentation to client executive board that will happen Thursday
- Blog post
Time Blocked Off: 6:00-8:00am
Wednesday
We have an Account Manager meet and greet this day. At these events we meet 6-8 candidates in the morning and pick the top 2-3 to bring back for an afternoon of interviews with various people on our team. We typically, not always, then make a job offer to one of these candidates. It’s a long and busy day (for the candidates and Hanapin team members) but we have found great people who are perfect culture and PPC fits at these meet and greets.
Must Dos:
- Notify everyone I need to that I will be OOO on Thursday and Friday
- Follow up on new measurement for CRO effectiveness
- Blog post
Time Blocked Off: None – meet and greet all day
Thursday and Friday
I have an onsite visit with a client on Thursday and Friday this week. I’ll be in their office for 6-8 hours each day but I’ll have 4 open hours in the air as well as Thursday night. I am going to use this time to write 2 blog posts. One will be about how to prepare presentations for executive boards and the other will be in regards to how to stay efficient while traveling.
Must Dos:
- Thursday blog post
- Friday blog post
- Determine next set of routine tasks to streamline and first steps for each
Time Blocked Off: The honest answer is none. Although I will have the plane time and Thursday night in the hotel to wrap up things I need to get done.
Again, the pattern of this is the generals for the day so I know the main purpose of it, a few must dos that I can’t leave the office/shut the laptop until they are done, and time that should be carved out to handle urgent matters, meet with team members, and build stuff.
The cool thing about doing it for the week is you can compare what you have planned each week to your bigger picture goals. In fact, when I just did this I added two must dos that will help push my larger 90-days goals forward. Without this process it would have been a light week in regards to action taken on what I have deemed my most important priorities.
If you are interested in reading all posts in this series you can start with post 1 about what I am focusing on as president of a PPC agency. Post 5 is on how to tell if you are awful at PPC.
