eWay CEO Jan Lalinsky’s 2023 New Year’s Resolution: I Will Work Smarter, Not Just Harder

Jan Lalinsky, CEO of eWay System

Some want to lose weight, some want to start visiting a gym, and some want to spend less time at work and enjoy their families. Including me and my staff here at eWay-CRM. We are not like Elon Musk. We don’t have beds at work. We prefer sleeping at home.

I know it sounds like a cliché, but there are many amazing people, books, podcasts, and tools that tell you what to do. So why not make a New Year's resolution to use these smart resources to our advantage?

Here are the three most important principles that help me, and my 2023 resolution is to keep mastering them all.

#1 Plan your year, month, week, and day.

I am a goal-oriented person. I like to set goals and achieve them. I love marking tasks as completed. To me, clicking the checkbox “Done” is like hitting a home run. I can almost hear crowds chant my name.

I wrote an article about How to eat an elephant four years ago and I still follow the rules. Whenever I want to achieve something, it mostly can’t be done overnight. It requires the cooperation of the whole team.

Therefore, whenever I set a goal, I split it into smaller tasks. Then take each of them and split it into smaller subtasks and so on until I get to the point where each sub-sub-task can be done in a day or even in an hour.

Such an approach helps me keep the momentum. If I saw the major task, for example, “Implement a new corporate identity”, I could easily spend 15 minutes before finding out where to begin. If I see a smaller task, such as “Review logos that you received from your designer“, I can start working on it right away without hesitation. I feel effective.

So, my first 2023 resolution is: At the beginning of each year, month, week, and day, I will keep spending some time setting and reviewing my goals and making my plan.

#2 Keep focus and stay flexible.

I love GTD. It allows me to keep my agenda clear and organized while still giving me the flexibility I need.

I use tasks and not a calendar when scheduling my day. Tasks allow me to keep my flexibility. I can quickly move them, change them, and break them into smaller pieces. This is not possible with a calendar which I only use for booking meetings.

Let me give you an example. I come to work, and my first calendar slot is set for reviewing the logos for the new corporate identity. But guess what, I am not in the right mood or something urgent comes up. I need to change my plans and it requires me to completely reorganize my whole plan. A good 15 min is lost. Not to mention my momentum.

If I use tasks, I am flexible. I can pick whatever task I want and start right away. It’s easy.

My colleague Ondrej made a great article about GTD in eWay-CRM that explains how to use it in our software. I also recommend reading the original David Allen’s book „Getting Things Done“ which provides complete insight. This is where it all started for me and might be a great start for you.

This is why my second 2023 resolution is: I will keep mastering my GTD because it helps me keep my focus while staying flexible.

#3 Don’t carry the weight of the world on your shoulders

Delegate. The number 1 rule of every management book. Something I am terrible at. I keep thinking that I am the only one who can do the job right.

The worst part is that OUR SOFTWARE IS DESIGNED TO HELP TEAMS COOPERATE. I could easily turn an email into a task with a single click and assign it to somebody else. I could easily take notes from a meeting and ask others to help me with what I promised. I could attach a document to eWay-CRM and ask somebody to add a missing part. But I don’t.

Why? Because I just think that it’s easier doing it myself rather than explaining to somebody else what to do. I think that training a colleague is just not worth the effort. What if they leave and I will have to start over?

How foolish! I have a team of wonderful people I chose myself! Why did I hire them if I don’t believe they can help me do my job? That just doesn’t make sense. I need to change this.

So my third and final 2023 resolution is: I will cooperate more with the amazing individuals that form my team and I will ask them to help me carry the weight of the world. eWay-CRM will help us to stay effective.

Thank you all for the wonderful year 2022 and I wish you the best in 2023.