Shishir Mehrotra runs a company that’s all about productivity — and he’s got a meticulous method to track his own.
Superhuman is a suite of four AI productivity tools, including Grammarly, which recently rebranded its corporate entity to Superhuman. In addition to overseeing that rebrand, Mehrotra is also juggling board seats at companies like Walmart and Spotify, writing a coming book on company rituals, and raising a family.
He holds himself accountable to his own time management by keeping track of how well he completes certain tasks, like checking things off his to-do list and keeping his inbox at zero.
To do this, Mehrotra uses a productivity hack from Intercom cofounder Des Traynor, who was also an investor in Coda and Superhuman Mail, both of which are now products within Superhuman.
In 2019, Traynor outlined his framework in a viral tweet, arguing that emails reflect “what others think you should work on,” to-do lists show “what you think you should work on,” and calendars reveal “what you actually work on.” The post, which included a Venn diagram, suggested that the three buckets are often misaligned, and people end up spending most of their time on what others think is important rather than their own priorities.
Mehrotra said he uses Traynor’s four-step time management guide to keep focused on what’s most important. It starts with clearing your inbox, followed by reorganizing your calendar so every task has a dedicated time block. The third step is sticking to that schedule, and the final step is reflecting on the time you spent on top tasks — and evaluating for adjustments in the next cycle.
Mehrotra told Business Insider that he’s been using the four-step framework “religiously” for the last four or five years, and on a good week, it over doubles the amount he’s able to spend on his to-do list tasks compared to when he doesn’t use it.
“Giving yourself a weekly success score doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s been an insane productivity hack for me because it gives visibility into my work AND gives me something to improve upon,” Mehrotra wrote in a LinkedIn post about the method.
Aiming for 50%
Mehrotra said he reviews his priorities every Monday morning and sets his calendar with his executive assistant and chief of staff.
When he reviews his week, Mehrotra calculates an “alignment score” which is the overlap between his email, calendar, and to-do list. He uses that to track what percentage of his time is spent on his to-do list. He said he considers a score of around 50%, meaning he was able to spend about half his time on his to-do list, to be on the high end.
“If I spend 50% of my time on things that were on my to-do list, then that’s a pretty good week for me,” Mehrotra said.
Mehrotra said that aiming for 100% is “impractical” and “impossible.” He said that without using Traynor’s framework, it would be closer to 20%.
“There’s way too much of my job that wouldn’t have made my to-do list at the beginning of the week, but it’s still important,” Mehrotra said.
A zero inboxer
Mehrotra said he receives hundreds of emails every day and described himself as a “zero inboxer.” He said he also tracks how many consecutive weeks he’s hit zero with Superhuman Mail’s “Inbox Zero Streaks” feature.
“It’s like the equivalent of a clean desk,” Mehrotra said. “I can’t think straight if I think there are things that might be sitting there that I need to think about.”
The CEO said that doesn’t mean he needs to deal with every message as soon as it comes in, but he said it needs to be moved out of his inbox and categorized.
