Time management truths for Rhino PMs
This post - written out of humility from painful mistakes I've made in the past - is for PMs who find themselves stretched, over-committed and over-functioning.
About Rhino PMs
I increasingly believe that the rhino is the spirit animal for Product Managers who are notoriously oversubscribed, over-functioning and overwhelmed at any given time. This archetype is familiar and relatable, since many of us - myself included - have been the Rhino PM ourselves.
Rhinos are incredibly powerful & deceptively fast animals - but also extremely near-sighted. The skin of the rhino appears to the naked eye as tough as armor - but is actually surprisingly sensitive to parasites, insect bites.. and sunburns. And rhinos compensate for their poor eyesight with an extraordinary sense of smell (“intuition”) - which is why they communicate with their fellow rhinos through the spread of copious amounts of dung. Rhinos - at least the PM manifestations - typically can’t resist chasing whatever Really High Impact New Opportunity (or threat/problem/firefight) - presents itself to them.
Rhino PMs are more often than not victims of the environment they find themselves in. Yet they may also demonstrate innate tendencies and characteristics that can aggravate their predicaments - often stemming from their ambition, proactiveness and aptitude.
The intent of this post is to share some opinionated practices & principles to help you - the Rhino PM - rethink your approach to time management. Each point shared below can be further expanded upon in more detail; I’ve chosen not to in this post for both brevity and to unlock your introspection (vs. offering “solutions”).
Focus starts with intent.
At any given time, you can only support 2-3 meaningful priorities. Anything beyond that is noise and a set of false promises you are making to yourself and/or others.
To manage your time well - you need to know what time horizon you are operating on. Prioritizing & optimizing for 2 quarters vs. 2 years is fundamentally different.
Related - you can choose to run a sprint or pace a marathon but you can’t do both at the same time (well). Because managing your time requires you to manage your energy.
Related - what time horizons are others around you operating on?
As a PM and leader for your team/stakeholders - managing your time requires you to be thoughtful about the leverage of your time. You need to pick & choose where you invest; this post by Shreyas Doshi is seminal -
You have 4 choices to approach any potential priority on your radar - Do, Defer, Delegate or Delete. Rhino PMs struggle mightily in both Delegating and Deleting, primarily due to fear/anxiety.
Also - are you doing any tasks that others have delegated unintentionally and implicitly?
Tame the Kraken. Your calendar is the Kraken.
Contrary to how Google, Microsoft or Apple might present it to you - treat your calendar as “default closed” as opposed to “default open”. Treat every meeting - whether you create it or receive it - as an exception. So you need to be good at exception handling.
For the PM role in particular - meetings can either exist to support your individual flow or collective flow with your team (flow for me <> flow for we). Regardless, be clear on the underlying needs you are seeking to address. And remember… your desire to work more async may be trumped by your collective’s desire to be in flow.
In any given meeting, you are either a producer or consumer. If you are a consumer, you can either be an active consumer (like a video game) or a passive consumer (like binge watching a Netflix show). If you are primarily a passive consumer, you don’t need the meeting.
Slack threads are mini-meetings. Approach them with healthy skepticism; they may be bugs in your team’s culture or process.
Meeting value is vastly more important than meeting hygiene. But meeting hygiene is quite important.
Periodic calendar refreshes can be therapeutic and empowering.
Lastly, be kind to yourself.
Productivity will ebb & flow. You won’t appreciate the peaks if you don’t traverse the valleys. Excellence at knowledge work is similar to being an elite athlete - you need to plan for conditioning, practice, peak performance and recovery.
The path to burnout is not simply about the size & strain of your workload. It’s about the value (ROI) of the time & effort you’re putting in. Assess and validate that frequently.
Don’t fret if you are “breaking” any of the “rules” above. Time management is a skill + craft in and of itself. Simply seek to get better over time.