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Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian uses this 'really effective' time management trick since becoming a dad

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Alexis Ohanian holds daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. following the women's singles match between his wife, Serena Williams, and Katie Boulter of Great Britain during day six of the 2019 Hopman Cup at RAC Arena on January 03, 2019 in Perth, Australia.
Paul Kane | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has his hands full these days — besides running his latest business, early-stage venture capital firm Initialized Capital and hosting a new podcast, Ohanian is dad to 2-year-old daughter Alexis with wife Serena Williams.

In fact, his 38-year-old wife thinks he works more than she does. "The last time we talked about it, she's convinced that I'm actually busier than her," Ohanian tells CNBC Make It.

While Ohanian, 36, says it was "incredibly motivating" to hear this from Williams — who is a 23-time Grand slam singles champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist who owns several businesses — it was also a wake-up call. 

"It was a good check for me to make sure that I'm still holding up my bargain as a husband and a father," he says. 

It's one of the reasons Ohanian decided to become "dogmatic" in his approach to scheduling work and family time.

Last November, Ohanian started using a time tracking app called Toggl.

"Starting tracking all my hours using Toggl and I'm addicted. Only a couple weeks in, but I think it's going to be life-changing," Ohanian tweeted in December. 

Ohanian Toggl tweet

Ohanian (who is not a paid spokesperson or an investor in the app according to a Toggl spokesperson) says that after using the app for more than four months, the results have been "really effective."

"You find ways to cut time and to preserve time," Ohanian says.

"I think the most subtle and effective part of it has been forcing myself to start a timer when I'm logging time, like when I'm working with a portfolio company like Jinx," Ohanian tells CNBC Make It during an interview promoting healthy dog food company Jinx, which Initialized Capital recently invested in. "I'm now in a mindset where this is the only thing that I'm working on [during that allotted time]."

Focusing his attention on one thing at a time has made Ohanian more productive all around. 

"I'm the kind of person who has 30 tabs open [on my laptop] normally and by having to be really deliberate in the one thing that I'm working on, it makes me be way more effective at doing that task," he says. 

Ohanian even sets a timer and logs family time.

While he realizes that sounds "very unromantic," he says blocking out family time allows him to be more present with his daughter and wife.

Alexis Ohanian holds daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. following the women's singles match between his wife, Serena Williams, and Katie Boulter of Great Britain during day six of the 2019 Hopman Cup at RAC Arena on January 03, 2019 in Perth, Australia.
Paul Kane | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

At the end of each week, Ohanian looks at his log to see where he spend his time and how it worked for him. He uses that information to try and readjust his schedule for the upcoming week.

He also tweets a recap of his time log to his nearly 300,000 Twitter followers. 

"Getting better at timeboxing. Last week was almost all in SF, which always ends up being stacked with meetings and ends up feeling busy but not as effective as I'd like. This trip felt better, tho no less swamped. Doubling down on timeboxing this week! #weeklyreview," Ohanian tweeted on Feb. 25.

Ohanian SF Toggl tweet

While Ohanian turns to tech to help with productivity, his wife, Williams, previously told CNBC Make It she does quite the opposite to stay productive: She makes time to just zone out.

"Something I do every day is [to] completely turn my brain off, which sounds weird but because I work so much between tennis and running my other properties — Serena Ventures and Serena Clothing. But it's a lot so I just need to turn my brain off and not think about anything," Williams told CNBC Make It on Feb. 4.

Williams says she finds little ways to zone out, no matter what's on her schedule.

"Sometimes it's mediation. Sometimes it's watching a program [on TV] that has nothing to do with anything, like something that is silly or fun," she says.

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