This similar essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Richard White, CEO of AI Note-Taking Company Fathom. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Everyone talks about procrastination as a personal failure. I disagree. I'm an extreme procrastinator and have been building successful companies like Uservoice and, more recently, Fathom for 15 years.
It's one of my biggest assets as an entrepreneur. I think procrastination is a ruthless prioritization in disguise.
Think of procrastination as data collection
Procrastination is a way to gather more information before making a critical decision. When I delay my choices, I am not lazy. Waiting for the best moment where there is enough data to make the right call.
The university determined the scale of the project and left it to the final achievable portion. I may have annoyed my peers or didn't make the most of every seminar, but I do exactly what I need and more. Since then I have learned to be more thoughtful about my approach.
I used this philosophy to build Fathom. This has an 8-digit rating. We began construction of the company in 2020. Instead of rushing to the market with available technology, we waited. Data has been collected. We've seen AI capabilities evolve.
For example, before deploying GPT-4 and Claude 2, Fathom brings a basic call overview. When GPT-4 became available, we saw its capabilities and knew that coordinated investments on our part would bring about great returns. This is the foundation of a more advanced call overview feature, and previous investments would not have been much more useful to us.
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The same principle applies to my personal life. I'm planning a last minute trip. Because I want to see what opportunities are emerging, what is actually happening in my life, and what I'm missing if I commit too quickly.
Even in other work environments and relationships, being procrastination can bother people. However, the realistic and most common drawback of procrastination is that you underestimate the necessary effort and start something too late to meet deadlines. As CEO, I can define deadlines or, in our case, create an environment with no deadlines.
Emergency issues that surpass important issues
I took a fashionable approach for the CEO: urgent Trump is important. This keeps the whole company moving forward without anyone waiting for me to make progress.
That means that sometimes important, but urgent things are suffering. I tell the team that if something really matters, I should keep tagging me until I respond. This creates a culture where people at all levels of the company can advocate for important things and ensure that truly important tasks are not lost.
I developed something called the “Jenga Model” for running my company. Like games, if the piece becomes too difficult or dangerous to move, I leave it behind and come back later. I can think about the problem and then bring it back without fear. A few months later I pick it up again, and suddenly, the answer comes out immediately.
Prioritize issues that grow over time, such as making important product changes, or problems that grow over time, such as poor quality or reversible solutions. Reversible top decisions should be deferred to collect data as long as possible, or split into lower stakes decisions that will help you collect data to inform bigger issues.
For product development, we distribute ideas internally while waiting for technology improvements. We are not in a hurry to the market. Instead, wait for the AI to improve, see what's going wrong, and optimize the timing. I don't think I've missed the opportunity. The reality of startups is that very few have “difficult” deadlines.
Implementing a non-deadline environment in Fathom means there was not much negative feedback about this model. My team understands what we prioritize and what we do later.
CEOs need to play on their strengths
Working with great entrepreneurs over the years has taught me that I can't create anything around me that doesn't suit your strengths.
My strengths are not planning or strict schedules. My strength is recognizing the best timing, gathering information and making shocking decisions. Delegate open-ended goals to your team, rather than micro-management tasks. We encourage people of all levels to make decisions.
Most people think that efficiency means doing things as quickly as possible. I think efficiency means doing things at the right time. You may be wrong when something is needed or about the time cost of running, but that is the risk you take using your best collective judgment.
This idea works incredibly well. They are using AI to find ways to take better notes, reduce unnecessary meetings, and democratize information sharing within companies.
The next time someone tells you that procrastination is preventing you, ask yourself: Are you really procrastinating, or are you waiting for better information? Are you lazy or are you strategically patient? Sometimes the best thing you can do is put the problem when you can solve it easily and effectively and come back to it.
