1. Introduction

I believe collaboration is easiest when people know what to expect from each other. How we communicate, make decisions, and handle feedback, knowing what works f for someone makes collaboration easier, more fun, and more productive.

This page is not about setting rules — it’s about offering clarity, mostly for work situations but it can also add some insights if we connected on a personal level.

Everyone has different ways of working, and I hope this handbook helps you understand mine. I also want to make it easier for you to reach out, ask questions, or share feedback with me in a way that feels more comfortable for both of us.

2. Personal Work Style

• Communication Preferences:
  • Discuss things > live meeting.
  • Share information > Written format; preferably somewhere I can easily look it up again.
  • Share a decision with me > Should always be done in a written format.
  • Quick questions > text or slack me
  • Want to meet up? Please let me know what it’s about before inviting me or at least add an agenda to the invite.
• Decision-Making:
  • Decision making matrix = Take it – Tweak it – move forward.
  • I tend to make decisions quickly and easily.
  • I have no problems with changing my mind when new information arises.
  • I am not very data driven, I am super aware of the fact that somehow some crucial information always shows up later in the process so emerging insights is something I refer to quite a lot.
  • I prefer people making quick decision and later changing their mind over decisions being postponed for a long time, as long as they let me know they changed their mind.
  • Decisions need to be (publicly) accessible.
• Feedback:
  • I consider myself to be pretty direct. I also prefer any feedback directly.
  • I am open to feedback and am pretty coachable. However, my first response is often to defend and/or blame. I am aware of this. Taking some time between receiving feedback and responding helps me process and receive the feedback better.

3. Meetings

• One-on-One Meetings: Always preferred.
  I prefer shorter meetings more often over one long meeting. Especially for ongoing things I’d rather do two meetings of 15 mins twice a week than one 1-hour meeting once a month (extreme example).
  I really like body doubling, which means as much as having someone around to do a task. This can easily be achieved by opening an online meeting with someone and you both work on your own stuff.
• Group Meetings: I don’t do well in big group meetings. I get easily distracted especially if the topic isn’t very interesting to me. Taking notes in a group meeting is often a good way for me to stay focused. I believe all group meetings should publish notes and decisions publicly.
• Town Halls: I think they are a great way to stay up to date with vision and big decisions and plans. As these only require me to listen this works best if I do something during listening that doesn’t require any mental space (like ironing).

4. Time Management

• Work Hours: I work part time (32h) spread over 5 days which means I work shorter days than most. I am pretty flexible with my time but in general I start early (around 8-ish) and take a long break somewhere in the middle of the day.
  I work from home most days. I try to go to the office a few times a month. Working times there will be 10-15h.
• Focus Time: I am most focused in the morning so I like to do most of the work then. Meetings are best scheduled in the afternoon. My days work best for me if there is a good balance between time to work and meetings. More than 4 meetings a day is not working well for me. Task switching can be hard when I am in a hyperfocus but usually switching tasks makes me more productive because it prevents me from going down unnecessary rabbit holes.
• Time Off:
  I am not a person for long vacations. I take a lot of random days off during the year. I do always schedule some time off after attending an event and during the Christmas season.
  I don’t have any work tools on my phone, so if something requires my immediate attention while I am away the way to reach me is via a phone call or Whatsapp/Signal message.

5. Values and Principles

• Core Values:
  • People over anything else
  • If it doesn’t contribute to something good, is it worth doing?
  • Have fun
  • Clear is kind
  • Transparency is key
  • Always assume positive intent
• Expectations:
  • Be open, clear and explicit about what you expect from me.
  • Be as transparant as possible about what you are working on, and what occupies your mind.
  • We are in this together
  • Always assume positive intent.

6. Tools and Processes

• Preferred Tools:
  • Message me any time, I will respond at the right time for me. Send me your questions, check ins, personal stuff, etc. Fun memes are always welcome as well.
• Processes:
  • I either do things now, or not now. Even though I have a todo list it’s hard for me to stay focussed on that.
  • I understand your priorities matter more to you than to me so don’t hesitate to remind me if you need anything from me. I won’t take it personal. Same goes the other way around.
  • Asking questions is something I either do too much or too little, I am still working on finding a healthy middle ground.
  • I thrive on personal connections so sharing why a task matters to you or have some personal chitchat is the way to get me involved more.
  • Ask for help if you need it. I am always happy to help but focus on only doing that when asked instead of offering unsolicited help or advice.

7. Continuous Improvement

• As a person with AUDHD I struggle with tasks, todos and focus a lot, so that is always something I am open to learning more about.
• My focus this year is on personal leadership and accountability. How do I get it, how do I live it and how can I show it off.

• Feedback Loop: This is a live document, feel free to react, comment, and ask questions, I’ll revise it regularly.