What Can You Produce In 48 Hours?
One of the productivity hacks I have discovered by accident is forcing myself to produce something in 48 hours. When I look back on my life, I realize many of the things I am proudest of resulted from 48 hours of intense work. These things include graduating from college, writing my first commercial Desktop Application for OS X or building entire companies or products.
It is easy to get complacent, even in a startup, and focus on meetings, being a manager, talking to people, being at work from 9-5, writing weekly reports, etc (things that look like they are results, but contribute nothing to the company's ROI). What is much more interesting and powerful to me is what I can produce in 48 hours. On one hand this can be dangerous because too many 48 hour sessions in a quarter and it could lead to burnout, horrible software or horrible decisions. On the other hand, if your going through the motions doing "agile", or "retiring in your desk" and never producing anything in a year, try shaking things up. Try working harder than you have worked in your life over the course of 48 hours.
A good rule of thumb is to think about the last year at your company and ask yourself this question. Could you or someone else could produce 80% of what you did in that year in 48 hours? If you the answer is yes, your selling yourself short, even as a manager (even non-technical). Your current job may not last forever, but the memory of what you produced in 48 hours will, and the skills you learn from each of those experiences will build on themselves and make you better for the rest of your life.