Zapier Founder's 4-Hour Scheduling Strategy

In 7 Hours With, we explore the routines of leading professionals in their space to learn the when, why, where and how they work. In each diary, we will look at what they’re doing at seven different check-ins throughout their day.

Wade Foster is the founder and CEO of Zapier, an app that enables easy automation and connectivity between apps. Hive loves Zapier and uses it to help us integrate with over 1,000 other tools. You can learn more about Zapier here.

6 AM

I wake up around 6 a.m., and I start the day typically by scrolling through my phone in bed for about 30 minutes while my brain powers up. Probably not the healthiest habit, but it’s the truth! From there I take the dog on a walk, help my wife with my daughter, make breakfast, and sit down to start work.

7:30 AM

I like to start the first hour of work without meetings to focus on my top task for the week. Most days I work from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. I mix breaks in to spend time with my family and take long walks with my dog, Banjo.

My weeks follow a similar structure. On Mondays, I document my priorities and make sure I have time on the schedule to complete them. I have recurring 1:1s with each of my directs at the same time each week. Zapier currently employs 400 people around the world. Our team is growing which means 25% of my week is spent on recruiting. From there I flex into a mix of work such as long-term planning, PR, partnerships, and customers throughout the week.

For a bit of a backstory, my co-founders Bryan, Mike, and I started Zapier in 2011, while we were living in Columbia, Missouri — a non-tech hub if there ever was one. Here’s an actual text thread we had in 2011.

Bryan and I did some freelance work alongside our day jobs, where we worked on a number of web projects for clients. We noticed a pattern emerging among our clients — they were asking to build more and more integrations from one app to another.

People were interested in the convenience that SaaS apps offered, but bringing those apps together was a complex and frustrating process that usually required technical help. They wanted to make it easy for people to connect their apps and make their lives easier.

Zapier started as a side project to address this need. We worked nights and weekends and used our savings to propel the company forward. Today, we’re the leader in easy automation for small businesses. We connect over 3,000 apps and have helped over 1.8 million individuals and businesses with their automation needs.

11 AM

I work pretty much all morning, and here’s a look at my workspace. Zapier has been fully remote since we were founded in 2011. When remote work became the norm in 2020, the world turned to us for our expertise. Over the past year, we’ve taught millions how to work remotely, which is pretty cool. My office setup has always been pretty minimal. I have a dedicated room but prefer to work with a clean desktop and walls.

11:30 AM

I step away from my desk for an hour lunch with my family, around 11:30 a.m. most days. Typically I eat leftovers from dinner the night before.

2 PM

This afternoon is our company all-hands meeting. Every Thursday we host this meeting over Zoom. We have over 400 employees around the world, so we alternate the time each week to take different time zones into account. It’s essential for putting faces to the names of teammates, catching up on what teams are working on or have accomplished, and gives us a chance to hang out for a bit as a company.

Another hack that I have is that I only pre-schedule 4 hours maximum each day, and when possible all those meetings are between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. I work hard to make sure the meetings I’m in are good ones. This schedule gives me focus time for at least 2 hours in the morning to get my most important tasks done.

4 PM

I’m generally working on anything that falls into the aforementioned buckets at this time. But I’m smart with it.

One of our core values at Zapier is “Don’t be a Robot, Build the Robot.” No matter your role, you’ll find yourself doing repetitive, low-value work. Automating your manual tasks is one of the best ways to increase your productivity, outsize your impact, and stay focused on high-value work.

Here are a few of my favorite time-saving Zaps (automated workflows) that I use daily:

That’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Our customers use Zapier for all sorts of inspiring things from delivering meals to families in need, to (literally) making magic!

5:30 PM

I quit work at 5:30 p.m. to work out almost every day. I do a mix of weightlifting and racquetball (when it’s not a pandemic) and running. The rest of the evening is spent with my family.

Sometimes I come back to work in the evenings, but that’s mostly to wrap up any communications!