Joining an early-stage startup is a bit like being dropped into the middle of a Quentin Tarantino movie. The plot’s moving fast, the stakes are high, and you’re not entirely sure what’s going to happen next — but one thing’s for sure: everyone’s counting on you to pull off more than one role at a time.
As an early employee, you’re not just hired to do the job in your title. You’re hired to figure things out. You’re the marketer who writes code, the designer who’s running sales calls, the ops person setting up payroll while writing the Notion wiki. The company needs generalists who can juggle, pivot, and prioritize on the fly — people who are, as we like to say, “doing things that don’t scale”... yet.
Multitasking — when done right — isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s table stakes.
But hold up. We're not talking about switching between 12 tabs while answering Slack messages with one hand and writing SQL queries with the other. That’s a recipe for burnout, not brilliance.
What we’re talking about is structured multitasking — learning how to:
Prioritize like a Navy SEAL,
Context-switch without losing your brain,
Stay proactive instead of reactive,
And still make time to breathe (and maybe even sleep).
Think of this as your field guide to thriving in the beautifully chaotic world of early-stage startups. Or as Ferris Bueller once said:
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Let’s make sure you’re not just keeping up — but winning at the game.
I. Time Management: How to not lose your mind (or your calendar)
Time is your most precious resource as an early-stage employee. You’re not just fighting fires — you’re building the fire station while fighting the fires while updating the Notion playbook on how to fight fires.
So how do you manage time when it feels like there’s never enough of it?
Here’s some of what works for us, for not just doing more, but doing what actually matters.
a. “Threepriorities. Everything else is triage.” Célian, after getting overwhelmed for 3 months
Every morning, write down the three outcomes you must achieve that day. Not tasks. Not vague goals. Outcomes.
“Answer emails” is not an outcome.
“Close the loop on onboarding process for 2 hires” is.
If it’s not in your top 3, treat it like a war doctor in the field : triage it. That means:
Postpone it
Delegate it
Or let it go entirely
This clarity is freedom. When everything feels important, nothing gets done. When three things are important, you have a shot at winning the day.
b. Work in blocks, not in pings
Deep work doesn’t happen between Slack notifications and calendar invites. Build your day around focus blocks: 45–90 minute sessions of uninterrupted, high-leverage work.
Block time on your calendar.
Make it sacred.
Tell your team: “If it’s not on fire, it can wait.”
You’re not rude. You’re just getting stuff done. Multitasking isn’t about doing 10 things at once — it’s about doing the right thing at the right time.
“You’re not busy. You’re just distracted.” — Literally every productivity guru ever.
(Hey, don’t use this as an excuse to tell your founder to “turn around, keep walking, and don’t stop till you’ve thoroughly disappointed yourself” if he tries to call you during a block time. If you do, don’t put it on us 🙂)
c. Batch it like a pro
Your brain isn’t a tabbed browser. Switching contexts constantly is mentally intensive, and efficiency expensive. Instead:
Group similar tasks together,
Answer all emails in one go,
Write all your LinkedIn content in a batch,
Do all admin tasks back-to-back.
d. Mornings are for makers
Yes, I am sounding like your parents right now, but you know the drill: “The early bird (or employee ) catches the worm”. Protect your mornings like Gollum protects his ring.
Few to no meetings,
No standups,
No sync calls unless someone’s bleeding (figuratively - don’t let Jason agonize if the coffee machine blew up to his face).
Your brain is freshest early on — use that time for deep thinking, planning, or executing your biggest task. Save the calls, pings, and “quick 15?” chaos for later.
e. When async fails, sync can prevail
We’re pro-async. But async isn’t a religion — it’s a tool.
So before booking that 30-minute block:
Ask: Can this be a Notion doc? A Loom? A Slack thread?
Start async anyway — even if it ends in a call, you’ll have more context, and the conversation will be faster.
And if you do meet, keep it tight and purposeful : have an agenda for the meeting, and know what outcome is expected at the end.
f. Sort your calendar like a color palette
Use colors or time blocks to tag workstreams (Admin, Marketing, Specific project, etc.). At the end of the week, you can reflect:
Where did your time go?
What drove the most impact?
What’s eating up your brain but not your output?
It's like budgeting your next trip with your friends to Ibiza (pronounce Ibissssa), but with time instead of euros (Equally painful, way more useful).
g. Use the 2-minute rule - Eloïse strikes again
Small task? Less than 2 minutes?
Do it now.
More than 2 minutes? Park it — but communicate.
If you're delaying a request, say so. “Got it, will handle later today” beats total silence every-single-day.
For email inboxes: apply this rule ruthlessly. Don’t let them grow into monsters.
h. Your calendar is not your To-Do list
Repeat after me: “I will not turn my calendar into a dumping ground.”
❌ Booking 27 tiny slots for random todos = calendar chaos.
✅ Use your calendar to protect time for outcomes, not micromanage minutiae.
✅ Use a real task manager (like Todoist — we’ll talk tools next).
Think of your calendar as your time wallet: it helps you invest in what matters most. Your to-do list? That’s your shopping list. Don’t confuse the two.
II. Prioritizing tasks
Knowing how to work in a time efficient manner is one thing — knowing what to work on is another. Prioritization is where strategy meets execution. You won’t have time to do everything, so you need to become great at choosing what not to do.
a. Use the ICE framework to prioritize ruthlessly
A simple but powerful method for prioritization is the ICE scoring model:
Impact: How much value will this create if successful?
Confidence: How confident are you that this task will have the expected impact?
Effort: How much work does it take?
💡 Tip for Early Builders: :
Score each task on a scale of 1–10 for each dimension. Then calculate:
ICE Score = (Impact × Confidence) / Effort
Focus on high-ICE tasks: low-effort, high-confidence, high-impact.
As an employee, even early, you’ll be assigned tasks. But that doesn’t mean all tasks deserve equal attention. Ask yourself:
Does this task move the needle?
Does it align with our team’s goals right now?
Let yourself push back on low-impact requests — politely but assertively.
At the same time, avoid tunnel vision. Share your task list with founders or leads weekly. They’ll help catch blind spots or spot misaligned priorities you didn’t notice.
c. The power of the To-Do list — but make it yours
While tools were already covered in the productivity section, one thing matters for prioritization: your task list must be central to your decision-making.
Why?
Slack and email are other people’s priorities. Your to-do list is yours.
You need to balance reactive work (emails, messages) with proactive work (high-ICE tasks).
A good tool (like Todoist) lets you snooze, reprioritize, tag, and focus on just today’s tasks.
💡 Tip for Early Builders: At the end of each day, identify the one task you’ll tackle first tomorrow. That’s your “frog” — a method proven to boost focus.
d. Master the art of input prioritization (Slack, Email, etc.)
While Slack and email are just channels, they feed your task pipeline. Here's how to prioritize input, not just tasks :
Rules of thumb:
Don’t check Slack every 10 minutes. Batch it to protect focus.
If something takes >30s to process, move it to your task list.
Zero inbox is the goal — on Slack, email, and to-do lists. Not for perfection, but for peace of mind.
If you consistently have more tasks than you can handle, that’s not a prioritization problem — that’s a scope problem. Talk to your manager, review your ICE scores, and be ruthless about cutting the bottom 30% of your list.
PS : Note it down. Yes, that thing you think you will remember. You won’t. Note it down. Before someone calls you to see how that thing you thought you could remember is going. Before the horror of realization takes hold of you and your founder asks you why you're suddenly so pale. So yeah. Write it down. Trust us.
III. Acquiring knowledge – growing fast, staying sharp
Your impact as a early builder depends on how quickly you learn. In a fast-paced team, knowledge compounds — and the best way to learn is to work smart, reflect deeply, and stay curious.
Not all learning is equal — or equally effective. Here's the split that actually works (take the studies word on it, not ours) :
70% — Learn by doing: Most learning happens through hands-on tasks, mistakes, and iteration.
20% — Learn from peers: Shadow colleagues, ask questions, watch how decisions are made.
10% — Learn from structured content: Docs, courses, videos, playbooks. Useful, but not the main driver.
Prioritize doing > reading. Your speed of iteration = your speed of learning.
b. Ask one smart question per day
Learning accelerates when you tap into others’ experiences.
Ask one thoughtful question each day to someone who’s great at something you want to learn.
It could be technical (“Why did we structure this like that?”), strategic (“What would you do differently next time you launch a company?”), or tactical (“How would you solve this faster?”).
Don’t be afraid to go deep — most people love sharing what they know when they’re asked with genuine curiosity.
c. Build your personal knowledge base
Learning fades fast if you don’t capture it.
Start a Notion or doc where you keep:
“How X works” explanations
Successes and why they worked
Mistakes and what you learned
Tips, mental models, go-to links
Over time, this will become your operating manual — and it might help future teammates too.
You can’t learn everything at once. That’s why it helps to grow like a T:
Go deep on one core skill that’s central to your role
Stay broadly curious about adjacent skills
This keeps you versatile while still building real expertise .
💡 Tip for Early Builders :
d. Learn from others — intentionally
Network with others in similar roles — ask what’s working for them (read our articles and join the community 😉)
Find mentors: inside or outside the company
Follow people on Twitter/LinkedIn/Substack who think well and build in public
Join relevant Slack/Discord communities (especially for ops, product, design, etc.)
Key takeaway
Succeeding in a fast-paced team and environment like the one you are in now, is less about doing more and more about doing the right things—fast, well, and with intention. Stay clear on expectations, prioritize what truly matters, and keep learning relentlessly.
With the right mindset and systems, you’ll not only grow fast, you’ll help the whole team grow with you.
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