Optimizing Time Management & Productivity: Breakthrough Tips for CEOs & Leaders

This article is critical and specially crafted for CEOs & leaders to help with your professional and personal management of time and productivity.? It covers the intricate connection and neuroscience between how you perceive time at work, common CEO mistakes and practical strategies for achieving breakthroughs in your productivity, workload management and prioritisation.

Excited? Read on and learn….?

COMMON CEO MISTAKES IN MANAGING TIME & PRODUCTIVITY

Having worked with CEOs for over 15 years, here are some of the most common mistakes I’ve seen leaders make with regards to how they manage their personal productivity and effectiveness (in no particular order).?

1. Mediocre prioritisation skills

Some leaders are naturally not well skilled in prioritisation or have a tendency to procrastinate or delay task completion. These delays have follow on effects on the broader team and organisational productivity as well.?

2. Prone to interruptions and costly distractions

Every human being is prone to interruptions and distractions, it is how we manage them that counts. With the rapid uptake of digital devices, apps, multi-media screens and notifications, this problem is increasing, particularly without a disciplined approach. Many leaders also overestimate their ability to multi-task effectively, with studies showing that only 2.5% of the population are able to do so i.e. ‘super-taskers’.

3. Insufficient allocation of strategic thinking vs operational task implementation time

It is a common challenge for senior leaders to be caught up in operational priorities and crises that they are unable to allocate time for strategic thinking. As a result, the team or organisation may be well placed to perform short-term, however get caught unprepared to address strategic shifts in the broader market or industry landscape. This can lead to major revenue or demand shortfalls, unseen competitive threats, as well as unpredicted supply constraints or technological disruptions to the organisation.

4. Unskilled delegation capability - Not delegating enough or delegating inappropriately?

Occasionally CEO’s delegate to their direct reports without providing proper training or SOPs/ checklists to help them conduct the tasks at hand. Whilst allowing employees or direct reports to take action and make mistakes is admirable and encouraged in high growth companies, it is also worth noting that some degree of ‘knowledge transfer’ i.e. training or process documentation also helps build skill and confidence.??

5. Ineffective use of ‘latent time’

If accumulated together, there are many hours in the day of ‘latent’ or ‘idle’ time for any CEO. This can be time driving the car, waiting in queues such as in the grocery store or medical clinic, bathroom thinking time (sitting on the toilet or having a shower) or even when we sleep. Many leaders waste these opportunities which can be used more productively for creative problem-solving, often due to lack of time awareness.?

BREAKTHROUGH TIPS & STRATEGIES FOR CEO TIME MANAGEMENT & PRODUCTIVITY

Let's explore strategies for advanced time management techniques:

TIP #1. Setting Strategic Prioritization Time?

Leverage your prefrontal cortex's strategic thinking to prioritize tasks that align with your organization's long-term goals and your performance priorities well-being.?

Put the hardest and most important things first in the day, so you can get them out of the way with a sense of achievement.?

Its also useful to create a time log or use a digital calendar so you can monitor and reflect where your time is invested every week, and how you are tracking against your personal OKR’s / KPIs.??

TIP #2. Managing interruptions and distractions

In your role as a leader, multiple distractions are commonly abound, whether they're business-related or personal related meetings, tasks, crises, etc. Each interruption forces your brain to shift its focus, consuming valuable cognitive resources and time.

The ability to manage these distractions effectively becomes essential for maintaining productivity, achieving strategic objectives, and ensuring your focus as a CEO remains at its highest standard possible each day.

Many leaders still struggle to say ‘no’ to certain requests for time, even minor. They perceive it as being rude. However, it is possible, if you constantly appear to be late, behind schedule or falling behind on your KPI’s, that you may be regularly distracted with lower priority issues. Some leaders use their PA/ EA (assistants) to block such low priority calls or issues, whilst others get more confident at delegating or saying ‘no’ to requests for time.??

If you’re the type of persona that has strengths in deep connection and can lose track of time on certain tasks, it is good for you to set alarms at the 30min or 1hour mark of meetings to ensure you run on time. These can be set at the start of your day during your morning preparation routine (see point 10).?

TIP #3. Improving Your Strategic Delegation?

Strategic delegation is the art and science of using your prefrontal cortex of your brain to identify high-value tasks that require your specific expertise and delegate other low-value tasks to capable team members.

It is important when delegating to provide some form of training support or documentation (e.g. SOP) to enable your direct report to action them appropriately. They may be some initial effort in doing so, however the long-term benefits to scaling growth are obvious.?

Some CEO’s also delegating the wrong activities. Whilst some of these activities may not be what you're good at i.e. unrelated to your strengths, but you may need to action and learn these tasks yourself and grow into the discomfort in order for you to progress your growth as a leader. Bill Gates is one such leader who was initially strong in engineering but not sales & marketing; over time, he developed his skills in these areas to make Microsoft the global marketing powerhouse that it is today.?

TIP #4. Time Batching Priority Tasks in Your Calendar?

Time batching involves grouping similar tasks together in blocks of time to minimize interruptions and maximize efficiency. Whether you're overseeing operations or writing documents, or doing sales meetings, blocking them together can help with framing your minds.

Some experts also suggest scheduling certain types of meetings on the same day. For example, conduct all planning meetings on a Monday, or do most financial-oriented meetings or sales (pitch) meetings on a certain day of the week.?

The time of day also matters, where many CEO’s, such as Jeff Bezos, having more mentally taxing meetings that require complex decision-making, in the mornings when the mind is more fresh. This can vary by individual, but it helps to know your optimal thinking time of day, according to your personal biorhythms, and structuring your work accordingly.?

TIP #5. Identify better use of ‘Latent’ / ‘Idle’ Time in Your Day

All these latent times can be used to think through work problems and ideate solutions. Whilst ‘being present’ is also important for some of these tasks, (I certainly recommend mindfulness when eating), there are still also opportunities for leaders to use the time on focused problem-solving, without allowing these issues to linger or cause stress. Some opportunities for CEO’s to maximise idle time are:?

• Listening to an educational podcast while driving a car
• This can be time driving the car, waiting in queues such as in the grocery store or medical clinic, bathroom thinking time (sitting on the toilet or having a shower)
• Cons when we sleep.

CONCLUSION - WHAT’S YOUR NEXT IMPROVEMENT ACTION?

Optimizing time management is a vital aspect of your professional and personal leadership journey. Remember that time is a precious resource, both for your professional careers and your personal health. It's not about managing every moment but making the most of the moments that truly matter and focusing energy in the right people, things and priorities, as well as structuring them in the right order for maximum impact.?

What is one technique that you will be applying starting today??

If you’re interested in improving your time management as a high performing and healthy leader, message me on [email protected]. I’d also welcome any comments or feedback on the guide….what else would you like to learn?