The coronavirus pandemic will have long-lasting effects on the global economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported the worst global economic decline since the Great Depression, projecting a $9 trillion loss in global GDP over the next two years.

Despite the realities of a looming global recession, innovation has not faltered. But startups are now suddenly forced to acclimate to a very different world, and adapt their growth strategies accordingly, begging the question: how does one raise capital in a crisis?

Introducing the Data Market Services Inspiration Series , a new podcast produced and hosted by Tecu to support startups in the current crisis with advice and experienced insight .

This podcast is produced in collaboration with Data Market Services Accelerator, a European Commission-backed initiative involving TNW and nine other partners from across Europe. For six months, the DMS Accelerator offers training in business growth, legal and IP matters, GDPR,  and data science, as well as investor matchmaking to 50 European data-driven startups. If you’d like to join the program, find out more here. The deadline is May 31!

Over the course of three episodes, we’ll hear from panels of experts and startups on how to grow their business and what key lessons they should take away from investors, government agencies, and fellow startups.

In this first episode, Tecu’s Andrii Degeler interviews Alastair Mitchell, a partner at EQT Ventures, followed by a VC panel featuring Itxaso del Palacio, an investment director at Notion, Jacqueline van den Ende, a partner at Peak Capital, and Janneke Niessen, the co-founder of CapitalT.

How has the current global climate affected how VCs approach new deals? How will the VC landscape change, post-COVID-19? What do VCs value most in a startup? Listen to episode one of Data Market Services Inspiration Series to find out:

To find the episode on Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple podcasts, click here .

And i f you’re a startup looking for equity-free advice and support, join the Data Market Services Accelerator today .

Here’s what it really means when you say ‘I’m busy’

Boris is the wise ol’ CEO of TNW who writes a weekly column on everything about being an entrepreneur in tech — from managing stress to embracing awkwardness. You can get his musings straight to your inbox by signing up for his newsletter!

It seems that saying ‘I’m busy’ has become a badge of honor these days. If someone asks you whether you’re busy the expectation is that you’ll say ‘Yes, very!’

If you were to reply ‘No, not at all’ that would be cause for concern. You’re not busy? Are you okay? Are you sure? What’s wrong?

So what exactly defines ‘busy?’ If you ask me to do something that takes only 30 seconds, and I say I can’t do it because I’m busy, surely you’ll argue that I’m just making excuses, and nobody can be so busy they don’t even have time to do a 30-second task. I know I certainly have a hard time accepting it when I get that answer.

Truth is, most of us are too busy for a 30-second task, and here’s why you shouldn’t feel guilty about it.

What ‘I’m busy’ really means

Every morning I check my calendar and to-do list and decide which of my goals I want to achieve and then I focus on completing them.

I might have five goals in total, but I’ll focus on the one or two most important ones. I also have 15 or 20 less important smaller tasks. But if I want to get anything done, I’ll ignore those so I can focus on the main one or two.

One layer below that are 100+ even smaller tasks. These are all the 30-second tasks that have accumulated over time. I consider most emails part of this.

At any given time I still need to either delete, forward, or reply to 50 or 100 emails, and I’m ignoring them to focus on the bigger to-dos I have on my list.

Imagine being a person who is waiting for me to reply to an email (some of you might be, sorry in advance!). It’s just one small question, and wouldn’t take more than a minute to answer. Now imagine me saying ‘Oh, I’m sorry I was too busy to reply.’ Surely you’ll be surprised, even annoyed, that I can’t even find one minute in my daily schedule to reply to you.

But I can’t. I’m too busy, and looking into even one email is going to screw up my schedule and workflow.

See, as soon as I descend into the lower levels of my task list, I now have to decide on 100 smaller tasks, and which ones to pick. Just rummaging through the second and third level of tasks is more time consuming than I can afford, if I ever want to achieve my larger tasks. It’s also difficult to keep your eye on the bigger goals when you’re surrounded by tiny tasks.

The effect of this will be that you might find me sitting on a bench, staring into the distance. I’ll look bored, or even catatonic. What I am is ‘busy’ — I’m working.

I’m thinking about a strategy, a problem, a large task. I’m using all I have for a brain, and every ounce of creativity I have to solve a problem efficiently. And while I’m doing it, I’m ignoring everything around me.

Just a few weeks ago I was sitting next to a fire when my girlfriend joined me. The sun was setting, we had a cup of tea, and she had brought her book. She asked me whether I also wanted to read my book, and seemingly absentminded I mumbled ‘No, I’m working.’

It was her laugh that made me snap out of my train of thought, and then I laughed too, because what she saw was just a guy sitting next to a campfire staring into the distance. But I was really doing some of my best work, right there in that moment.

Can’t get enough of Boris? Check out his older stories here , and sign up for his newsletter here .

I don’t do meetings on Fridays — here’s why you shouldn’t either

Sometimes the smallest change can make a big difference for your mental health. For me, it’s keeping Friday completely clear of meetings.

I’m a manager at Zapier. I work on the success team, which means I need to have time to take care of my customers and my direct reports, all while getting through all the other work I need to do.

It’s… a lot.

And I’m not alone. I’ve talked with other managers here, and they feel the same way. It’s easy for scheduled meetings and calls to multiply until they take up every moment, and at that point, necessary work is going to fall through the cracks.

There are many solutions for this, but what’s working for me right now is to block out one day of the week on my calendar to be fully free of meetings. That day is Friday — here’s why, and how it’s working out for me.

Why Friday?

My work tends to build up and snowball throughout the week. You know how it is: you plan on working on something, then something else comes up. That happens to me several times a week, meaning there are all kinds of things on my to-do list I never quite get to.

That’s why meeting-free Friday is so great. First of all: I look forward to this day all week. It’s like a reward for getting through all of my calls.

But meeting-free Friday also gives me a chance to catch up on everything I dropped throughout the week. I’ve been trying this for a while, and I have to tell you: I’m much more productive on Fridays now. I consistently clear my to-do list.

That, in turn, makes my weekends better. I got everything done, so there’s no list in my head of things I’ll need to do Monday morning. This is a big part of the mental health benefit — my downtime is more relaxing now.

Like I said: it’s a small thing, but the benefits are huge.

How to set up your own meeting-free day

If you want to try something similar, don’t overthink it. Block out one day a week during which you won’t have any meetings, then stick to it. Let your coworkers know you’re doing everything possible to avoid meetings on that day.

If you work at a company that uses shared calendars, mark yourself busy on your meeting-free day. Here’s how that looks on my calendar:

Credit: Zapier You could even use Google Calendar’s out-of-office feature to automatically reject meeting requests on that day, but that’s an extreme measure.

I fully endorse having a meeting-free day on your calendars — it’s a 10/10 strategy. I don’t know if I can ever go back.