4 Tactics for Limiting Reading Interruptions ⇪

Our aim at Athena is to help you achieve more by becoming a level six delegator.

In each issue of our newsletter you’ll get unique delegation tips, including:

• Level Up → The Horse Race Training Method

• Delegate This → 4 Tactics for Limiting Reading Interruptions

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Reply with a process you delegate to your assistant and why it’s useful.

LEVEL UP

The Horse Race Training Method

Effective delegation hinges on your assistant understanding your explicit and implicit preferences, tastes, and thought process.

The Horse Race Method is a rapid way to transfer this context by completing the same task side-by-side and trading notes until your assistant consistently matches or exceeds your own output.

How it works:

1. Set the Track → Define clear parameters for an upcoming travel need. For example: "Non-stop flight to San Francisco, leaving Tuesday afternoon, returning Thursday evening. Preference for aisle seats and hotels within walking distance of the convention center."

2. Start the Race → Both you and your assistant independently book a trip to San Francisco for an upcoming conference using the parameters you shared.

3. Compare Results → Review both itineraries side-by-side. Your assistant found a cheaper flight, but you secured a better hotel rate. Discuss the trade-offs: "The $200 flight savings is great, but the hotel you chose is a 20-minute walk from the venue, which could impact my tight schedule."

4. Give Specific Feedback → "I prefer the 2 PM flight you found because it allows for a morning meeting in our office. However, I always choose hotels with 24-hour gyms for jet lag workouts. The hotel I picked has this, which offsets the higher room rate for me."

5. Refine and Repeat → Conduct the Horse Race exercise for a specific task until your assistant's choices consistently match — or beat—your own. The goal isn't speed, but deep understanding of your taste and thought process.

This method's power lies in its real-time, task-specific training — which unfolds over several cycles until you reach a high level of trust with your assistant. This insight applies to any impactful task to be delegated, from writing investor updates and preparing board decks to managing personal finances.

DELEGATE THIS

4 Delegations for Limiting Reading Interruptions

Reading is lauded as a path to wisdom — but often can be a drain on productivity. The constant influx of "must-read" content can hijack your attention and interrupt deep work.

Do any of these sound familiar?

• Context switching → You’re building an investor pitch deck when a push notification pops up on your Mac. It’s a “quick read” article on emerging market trends, but you end up diving deep for 45 minutes in a completely unrelated task. You return to your deck, but you’ve lost all momentum.

• Decision paralysis → After reading countless articles on remote work policies, you're more uncertain than ever about implementing a hybrid model for your growing startup.

• False sense of productivity → You spend two hours reading the latest management theories and you feel accomplished. Yet, your team's pending project proposals remain unreviewed as an urgent submission deadline approaches.

But with strategic delegation, your reading list can stop being a distraction and become a high-value source of knowledge and decision making.

Here’s are 4 delegation tactics from a sample of Athena members to protect your workflow from reading interruptions:

1. Tactile Focus Method → Sunil Pai, an investor and operator, shared: "My assistant curates 5-10 relevant pieces daily. I print select ones — and read/annotate between meetings or during commutes. This physical approach keeps me engaged and distraction-free."

2. The Kindle Nightcap → Kristen Berman, a founder/CEO, forwards interesting content to her assistant, who converts and sends it to her Kindle prior to 6:00pm EST. Nightly reading has become a focused, screen-free ritual that doesn't disrupt her workflow.

3. Audio Summaries → Katherine Krug, a founder/CEO, takes in information best via listening, has her assistant create 5-minute audio summaries of key articles. She listens to these during her morning commute so she can absorb industry insights without interrupting peak work hours.

4. Read-and-React → Cameron Woodward, a founder, immediately dictates potential actions in a Slack voice memo after reading each article. His Athena assistant then integrates these ideas into their project management system, complete with insights that translate to concrete action items.

Left unchecked, your reading list becomes a productivity sinkhole. Don't just read, delegate — engineer your knowledge acquisition and implementation.

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