The Staff+ Operating System

At the Staff+ level, your calendar isn’t just a list of meetings—it’s your operating system.

To do deep technical work, drive strategy, document outcomes, and still be present for your team, you have to design your week with intention.

This lesson walks through how to:

• Structure your time into blocks to stay effective across multiple work modes.

• Apply proven time management techniques like timeboxing, prioritization, and the 80/20 rule.

• Drop meetings that break flow and move toward async by default.

• Share your work and decisions through weekly demos and docs that make your impact visible.

Deep work is rare. Protect it like production uptime.

Managing time like a pro

Maker, manager, multiplier blocks

Staff+ folks use blocks as the foundation of their productivity.

You’ll build your schedule out of maker, manager, and multiplier blocks:

Maker block

This block is for uninterrupted focus on deep, technical work—where you tackle the problems only you can solve.

Use it for tasks like:

• Debugging complex production issues.

• Prototyping a new feature.

• Writing or refactoring critical code.

• Thinking through hard design problems.

Manager block

This block is for supporting and unblocking your team.

Use it for tasks like:

• 1:1s with direct reports or partners.

• Code reviews and async feedback.

• Syncs with cross-functional peers.

• Slack triage or incident follow-up.

This is where you elevate others, keep the system running smoothly, and build trust.

Multiplier block

This block is for high-impact work that improves the system for everyone.

Use it for tasks like:

• Writing internal tools that save time.

• Drafting design docs or technical strategies.

• Improving onboarding or documentation.

• Exploring new technologies for future use.

This work isn’t urgent—but it’s how you create sustained leverage.

Apply time management principles

Time blocking can be enhanced with other time management principles. 

Here are 4 that you should know about:

1. Eisenhower matrix: Helps you prioritize tasks by dividing them into four quadrants based on their urgency and importance.

2. Timeboxing: Allocate a fixed amount of time to a task, enhancing focus and productivity while preventing tasks from dragging on.

3. Eat the Frog: Encourages completing the most challenging task first, boosting motivation for the rest of the day.

4. Pareto principle (80/20 rule): Focus on the 20% of your efforts that will generate 80% of your impact, creating core leverage. 

Kill meetings, not flow

Your calendar is a critical tool, but it can also become your worst enemy. A calendar packed with low-value meetings is a "flow killer" that prevents the deep work required for high-leverage contributions.

In this regard, let the following principles guide you:

• Cut recurring meetings that don’t drive decisions. If a recurring meeting lacks a clear purpose, a defined agenda, or a history of driving tangible outcomes, question its existence.

• Move status updates to async docs. This allows team members to contribute their updates at their convenience and read the information on their own time, freeing up everyone's calendar.

• Keep decision meetings small, with pre-reads, clear roles, and time-boxes. Respect everyone’s time.

Weekly documentation: Demo and doc

At the end of the week, you should have two clear artifacts that show what you accomplished and what decisions were made.

Think of them as your async paper trail: one for visibility, one for accountability.

The demo

What it is:
A short, focused presentation of what you shipped or learned.

What it’s for:

• Sharing progress across teams

• Getting feedback early

• Showing that work is shipping, not just discussed

Format options:

• A 2–5 minute Loom video

• A link to a feature preview or prototype

• A GIF or screenshot with notes in Slack or Notion

• A 1-slide async update with context, before/after, and next steps

When to use a live demo:

• If stakeholders need to experience the flow live.

• If you want fast, directional feedback in real time.

• Otherwise, default to async and skip the meeting.

The doc

What it is:
A lightweight, asynchronous update that summarizes your week.

What it includes:

• Progress made

• Key decisions captured

• Blockers encountered

• Links to related RFCs, ADRs, or issues

Why it matters:
It keeps your manager and stakeholders informed without interrupting you, and creates a written record of your work and thinking.

John’s week is mostly: “vanish, then reappear with a patch nobody understands.” Yours will be structured, visible, and reproducible.

Sample weekly schedule

We’re not going to show you John's schedule, because it is not a model schedule (and he only really uses “busy” blocks to hide his beach days). But here’s an example of a good model schedule:

Test your knowledge