Maker + Manager = Zengineer

A zengineer’s schedule doesn’t fit into a typical 9-to-5 window, and we never really know when a zengineering moment can hit someone! Interestingly, all zengineers possess that innate tenacity and grit to execute excellence in their own unique ways. We can talk about it all day, but here’s are a quick sneak peek into how a zengineer makes the best use of time on a given day.

As Zengineers, we genuinely believe in and try to cultivate Paul Graham’s Maker Schedule and Manager Schedule division of work time as a way of our life.

Paul Graham writes:

Manager’s schedule: A manager’s day is, as a rule, sliced up into tiny slots, each with a specific purpose decided in advance. Many of those slots are used for meetings, calls, or emails. The Manager’s schedule may be planned for them by a secretary or assistant. Managers don’t necessarily need the capacity for deep focus — they primarily need the ability to make fast and smart decisions. In a three-minute meeting, they have the potential to generate enormous value through their decisions and expertise.

A maker’s schedule is different. It is made up of long blocks of time reserved for focusing on particular tasks, or an entire day might be devoted to just one activity. Breaking their day up into slots of a few minutes each would be the equivalent of doing nothing. Maker’s job is to create some form of tangible value.

A maker could be a programmer, marketer, business development professional, designer, or anyone else who designs, builds, serves, and/or thinks.

As Zengineers, we fall into both of the categories during different times; however, a few are on their way to truly master the intersection.

The top one on our list is the – Founding team. They successfully combine both schedules and make a clear distinction and adjust their environment in accordance. For example, in his Maker’s schedule, Our President, Vasudevan Swaminathan, ideates his next message for the weekly ‘Movie Monday’ mailers, or Janarthanan, CTO, ideates on our next IT solution or a product.

This approach to Maker’s schedule and Manager’s schedule is similar for all the teams at Zuci.

For a marketing team, Maker’s schedule involves thinking about campaigns, ideating on the next blog, videos, spending time on designs along with designers, writing the next social media post, read what bouts in their field for their bi-weekly “Learn One, Teach One” session.

It’s time for creation; they focus on these tasks for long hours and bring them to completion.

When on the Manager’s schedule, they take part in meetings with the founders, vendors, sales counterparts, give and receive direction and plan the next steps.

As Zengineers, we try to make rooms for both schedules to co-exist and treat them the same to get our best work done and deliver excellence among internal and external stakeholders.