Simon Griffiths is the CEO and one of three co-founders of the profit-for-purpose business Who Gives a Crap. Driven by a mission to ensure everyone in the world has access to a toilet and sanitation, Who Gives a Crap donates 50 per cent of its profits to help this become a reality. Here, Griffiths shares his secret sauce for avoiding excessive meetings and optimising his time at work and at home. My typical day looks like…Sleep is a top priority for me. My partner and I try to get as much
as much as possible until our young kids wake up. Once I’m up, I try to do something that gives me a burst of energy, like going for a surf, or to the gym.
If I do not have time to do either of those things (which is most mornings), lifting weights for 5-10 minutes is often enough to get me feeling ready for the day. I would love to do this every day, but the reality is that I probably get an ideal start 3-4 times a week.
My work environment looks like…I am often based in the country, so I am lucky to have floor-to-ceiling windows in front of my desk that look out onto a creek and nature. To me, this is the best work environment – I want to feel like I’m outside in nature while I’m inside working.
I manage my time at work by…I love the Pomodoro technique – setting a timer to do 25 minutes of work, then take a 5-10 minute break, then get back into another 25 minutes of work, then another short break. After four of these sprints, I take a 30-minute break and reset before going again.
I also batch my meetings to block out one-and-a-half days a week to be free of meetings, to allow myself to get into planning or deep-focus time.
Other than that, I try to keep meetings to 25 or 50 minutes and plan to take a short break and move around before my next meeting.
A work hack and tip I use…Do the hardest task first. I find this is the task that I usually procrastinate on. Once I’ve done the hardest task, everything else feels easy.
I believe that meetings should be as small and short as possible, as they can often hinder productivity. They have too many people or are allowed to run for too long.
I limit them to around 20-30 per cent of my week. This provides more flexibility to address pressing issues and prevents me from becoming a bottleneck and creating unnecessary delays.
My approach to in-person, remote and hybrid working is…I prefer a hybrid approach. We are a fully remote business, and while I work from home most days, I see the value of face-to-face connection. So, I can also be found in our co-working spaces, now and then, and for a few months of the year, I work from overseas to get some face time with the rest of our global team.
I switch off and remain balanced by…Surfing. I am not an amazing surfer, but it is still the best way to disconnect from work and be reminded of the epic power and beauty of Mother Nature.
This story first appeared in the August 2024 issue of Inside Retail Australia magazine.
