Chin Poh Nee speaks to Timothy Tiah about what a day at work is like for him, and how he does what he does best.

When it comes to the topic of productivity, who better to ask than Timothy Tiah, one of the co-founders of Netccentric Pte Ltd, which owns Nuffnang, the first and biggest blog advertising network in Asia Pacific.

Timothy says, “I used to receive 400 to 500 emails a day. There’s no way you’d be able to read all that in a day… it also means you’re missing out on a lot of stuff.”

On top of all that, he is also a loving father of two beautiful children. So, how does he do it all?

Here, our writer Chin Poh Nee talk to the successful entrepreneur about a day in his life at work and how he manages it so well.

What time do you wake up?
7.30am. My son gives me a kick to wake me up.

What’s the first thing you do in the morning?
I send my son to the nanny downstairs and then I crawl back into bed for a while. Sometimes I stay there for half an hour or longer, sometimes just for a short nap. Then I’m up and about. 

Most productive space?
It really depends on what kind of work I’m doing, but I feel I work better in the office. Less distractions.

How do you handle emails?
On my way to work, I’ll go through them on my phone and fire off a quick reply to the shorter emails. I’ll save the longer ones when I get to work. Anything that is CC-ed to me by my team, I’ll leave it to them to handle. I take myself out of a lot of things that I don’t have to handle... it’s a trap; you just get overloaded with these emails that are CC-ed to you.


(Illustration by Bryan Lim)

Best habit?
I guess I’m fairly organised. I can see when I’m going to overwhelm myself with work, so I try to build a structure around it and have a very organised workflow to minimise the workload. For example, rather than getting all my staff to submit reports to my manager, I created a Google shared document and got everyone to update the Google document by a particular date so all I need to do is check the Google document.

Worst habit?
I get too worried sometimes and I want things to be done quickly. It’s very irritating, I’d pester my staff every 15 minutes or so asking them if the thing is done yet. I’m trying to hold back. I’m moderately better now. I only pester them every 45 minutes. 

Last thing you do at night?
Catch up on my social media and read some news online.

Time you go to bed?
12.30am.

Lunch routine?  
Lunch is the one thing where I take my time. For me, it’s an opportunity to talk to my colleagues, see what’s going on and create bonds. I don’t like to be rushed.

Early bird or night owl?
I used to be an early bird, but I’ve become a night owl because of my wife. She’s a night owl too, so I sleep later to be able to spend time with her.

 

 

To read more interviews on the topic of productivity, get a copy of Malaysia Tatler June 2015 issue, available on newsstands now or click here to purchase the digital version.