The Daily Life of a 23-Year-Old CEO

 

Muhammad Auwal Ahnad (AKA Mohiddeen)

First of all, what does it take to be a CEO? My simple answer will be like this: the courage to manage a business —no matter what it does or how it looks. One should have the ability to solve problems, make decisions, and persist in the face of challenges.

One modern thinker says a CEO should have self-motivation and self-discipline. He should be able to motivate himself and the people around him. He should also have the confidence to confront problems, solve them, and delegate tasks.

As for me, my daily routine is as follows:

As a struggling youngster who want to survive, and as Ayra Starr lyricized the saying, "You must hustle if you wan chop," so I have to wake up early in the morning, say my morning prayers, do some personal activities, and then begin to complete the tasks on my desk.

First of all, every morning, I use to check all my emails to see if there are any important messages that need my attention. I then open my browser, log in to our web apps, check transactions and other activities, and make sure that everything is working properly. If there is any problem or glitch, I quickly solve it or call on someone from my team for assistance.

That's not all. The next thing I do is log in to my social media handles to face hundreds of messages waiting for my response. But firstly, I usually check messages from my team members and our groups to see if my attention is needed or if there is anything going on, because they are my priorities.

Then I move on to our official accounts to review and respond to messages, comments, and mentions, and deliver updates if necessary. Let me not forget to tell you that I also check my personal brand and its activities, and make sure everything is going well.

I do all these in less than two hours before eating my breakfast. But guess what? The morning routine doesn't end there. The next thing is to go through my schedule note to see if there are any tasks that I need to finish that morning. Every night before I go to bed, I use to list some tasks in my schedule note for the next morning.

This time, I turn off my mobile data, eat my breakfast, do some home activities, and then come back to prepare some tasks for that day in my schedule note. If there are any tasks from my team members that need my attention, I quickly complete them before anything else.

Between 8:30am and 11:00am, I would work on the tasks that I have scheduled. Once I am finished, I would launch myself into "task hunting," a term I coined which means going through the list of all the tasks that I want to complete in that week or month, or the things I want to achieve that year, or something like that.

During task hunting, I use to think deeply about how to prioritize the tasks. As experts say, "...the best thing to do is to prioritize tasks and complete them." This means giving attention to the most important tasks that need to be done at that time.

As experts also say, "Programmers don't sleep, we take a nap", so I take a nap for less than an hour during the afternoon and then continue to repeat the daily routine of checking, reviewing, responding, and updating our services and products. I would keep doing this every few minutes from 6:00am to 11:30pm.

While doing these, let me not forget to tell you that my other team members are also there working on their assigned tasks. If they need my attention, they will pop into my inbox and talk to me. Then we discuss how to improve things or solve problems.

During my free time, I don't usually waste it doing unnecessary things (only if I am 75% free). I would sit and read, research, attend lectures, watch or listen to experts on how to improve things and make them better. I would jot down the most important parts I get and apply my critical thinking ability to plan their implementation strategies.

When I want to rest, I sleep, watch comedies and movies on YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook, and even listen to music. However, my social media handles are customized—I only watch what I have personalized to watch. I use this free time to produce my digital content, whether visual or written.

Because it is the dry season now, sometimes, I use to trek for a few hundred metres to somewhere to refresh my brain, because it has been proven that watching different things, engaging with people, and having conversations with friends can help one's brain rest.

All the while, during this time, I will be checking my schedules, clearing some tasks and adding more.

Thanks for reading my piece. It's your CEO, Mohiddeen!

—Muhammad Auwal Ahmad (#Mohiddeen)
CEO, Flowdiary

28th May, 2023