Executive Time Management: How to Plan Like a CEO

When someone tells me they are a CEO and I don’t see purple to army green under-eye bags on them, I assume one thing: they know how to balance and navigate the business challenges effectively; they’ve mastered executive time management.

In all seriousness, as a CEO, you have a lot on your plate.

In fact, you don’t have a plate; you have a charcuterie board, a separate cheese board, a sushi board, an appetizer plate, a crudité platter, an antipasto platter, and so on.

No matter if you lead a startup or established business, you have very little time to get actual work done:

• Balancing long-term strategic planning with day-to-day operations? It’s up to you.
• Determining what can be delegated and what requires personal attention? You have to do it.
• Handling back-to-back meetings that can consume entire days, leaving no room for deep work? You have to attend them.
• Making the most important decisions that significantly impact the company? You’re the one making them.
• Securing investment and being diligent when allocating those resources so the company maintains a healthy cash flow? You’re (most likely) the man for the job.
• Keeping up with industry trends, technological advancements, and business strategies? Your responsibilities.
• Seeking guidance from experienced leaders while simultaneously providing mentorship to other executives in the company? It’s up to you to lead and find leaders to look up to.
• Keeping the company morale high and always being open to collaborating, answering leadership and staff questions, and receiving feedback? You’re the one to do so.

Man, if your days lasted 96 hours, it still wouldn’t be enough for you to manage it all. Knowing this, we at Memtime would love to help you improve your time management.

In this article, we break down all the CEO time management tips that will help you build a high-productivity workday structure. No high stress. No burnout.

And if you’re wondering一no, we are not about that 4 a.m., I-wake-up-without-an-alarm-because-I-am-a-business-mogul routine. The article contains practical tips you can introduce to your day and doesn’t involve scheduling meetings at 4.15 a.m.

Enough stalling; let’s get to it.

How many hours does a CEO work in a day?

Let’s start by seeing how many hours you tend to work on business days so we can understand your current workload and identify areas where time management improvements can be made.

Harvard Business Review’s study showed that leaders (CEOs and executives) worked an average of 9.7 hours per weekday. They also worked 79% of weekend days and 70% of vacation days (an average of 2.4 hours daily).

It’s safe to say that C-suite executives like yourself tend to have overly elaborate schedules and work harder than employees. But there has to be a way to cut down those hours while maintaining your involvement in the company and not losing sight of all your daily responsibilities.

Which leads us to the next point of this article.

How do CEOs stay organized?

I imagine mentioning CEOs like Anna Wintour or Bill Gates and their tips on executive time management wouldn’t do much for you, as you are probably not a billionaire with several real estate assets, private staff (like chefs and security), jets, collection of luxury cars and a foundation.

However, it would be beneficial to read how business leaders and members of the Young Entrepreneur Council speak from their experiences on time management.

In January 2023, Forbes published an article with nine members of the Council who shared their CEO time management tips. Here are some of them.

On starting a day with the most dreaded task: It will be dull, tedious and devoid of creativity, but it is absolutely crucial to the future of you and everyone else in the company. - Tyler Bray, TK Trailer Parts

On time blocking: I find time blocking to be extremely helpful, and it enables me to group like activities together so I don’t lose time reorienting myself again. - Diana Goodwin, MarketBox

On being kind to yourself: As a CEO, you often feel like there are so many things to do and never enough time, so I'm gracious with myself. If I'm feeling productive, I can get all three tasks done. If not, one task will suffice. At the very least, I know that I accomplished something. - Simon Bacher, Ling App

On using the Pomodoro technique: You work for 25 minutes straight and take a quick 5-minute break after. This is one of the best ways to maximize productivity because the activity window is so small that there's literally no room for distractions. - Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

And the list of tips goes on.

Similarly, Thanh Pham, Founder of Asian Efficiency, mentioned in one of his articles that he evaluates five metrics each week. On Sunday night, he chooses five categories to focus on for the upcoming week.

Examples Thanh gave of these categories are based on his responsibilities and business opportunities:

• thinking time,
• meeting with influencers,
• customer research,
• finding and recruiting people to come work for the company and
• deep work.

Thanh’s goal is for every metric to improve as much as possible on a monthly basis. Progress is what counts.

Comparably, Jose Cayasso (Caya), CEO at Slidebean, even shared his daily schedule.

Caya wakes up at 5 a.m. almost every workday, starts working around 8.30 a.m., and aims to finish work at 6.30 p.m. (blocking 2 hours for lunch). When he’s off work, he spends time with his loved ones and goes to bed by midnight.

With all this in mind, it’s safe to say that it’s up to you to find what works best for your demanding schedule. And to help you find go-to tips for boosting productivity and streamlining the workday, here are 5 ways to improve time management skills.

5 executive time management tips

Here are five executive time management tips to help you stay focused on work periods and aligned with your strategies.

#1 Prioritize tasks each day

Start your day by writing down the most important tasks.

Sounds pretty simple, right? In reality, it’s not: if you have over 30 tasks to complete each day, writing them all down seems almost unnecessary and exhausting.

A tool that can help you stop jotting down 30 bulleted tasks and visualize what needs to be prioritized is the Eisenhower Matrix.

I’m sure you’ve already heard of this matrix, but here’s a quick overview:

• The quadrant “DO” is for both urgent and important tasks. Those tasks must be done immediately.
• The quadrant “SCHEDULE” is for non-urgent but important tasks. These tasks affect your long-term goals but don’t need to be completed immediately.
• The quadrant “DELEGATE” is for urgent but unimportant tasks. You can delegate those.
• Quadrant “DELETE” contains all the tasks that are not urgent or important. You can delete those.

Now, if you think to yourself, “Who has the time to draw the matrix every single morning?”, I hear you.

Here is a simpler method for prioritizing tasks: evaluate tasks based on the previously set goals and the impact those tasks could have on the goals.

When you have defined goals (preferably SMART ones) that align with the vision, you can identify which tasks correspond with those goals. Prioritize tasks that contribute mainly to the defined objects and make a visible difference.

#2 Use time blocking and buffer periods

Before you can introduce any time management techniques to your schedule, you need to remember that the calendar is your friend.

And to make it seem even more friendly, I suggest you add time blocks and buffer periods to yours:

• Time blocks allow you to have special periods in your day to dedicate to different activities or groups of activities. You can create a time block for deep or creative work, the next one for personal activities, the third one for resting, etc.
• Buffer periods are times between meetings or other brain-draining activities. You must give yourself room to breathe and a chance to find your focus after mentally demanding tasks; this time allows your mind to rest and recharge.

While we are on the topic of time management, one thing’s for sure: if you track your time, you’ll know where your time goes.

So, if you don’t have a strong grasp of time, maybe it’s time to change that. Perhaps it’s time to see where your time actually goes.

That’s when Memtime comes into play.

Memtime is a time management tool that works (silently) in the background. There’s no timer to start and stop; you can start working as you normally do, and the time spent on your tasks will be captured down to the minute.

Here are some of Memtime’s features worth mentioning:

• It doesn’t have START and STOP buttons; Memtime’s just there. Open Memtime and start working like you normally would.
• All computer activity data is stored offline on YOUR computer, and no one else but you can access it, not even your assistant.
• Your days are displayed in 1-60 minute intervals.
• Memtime syncs with calendars and pulls events from any calendar you connect it to.
• You can review your captured activities, create time entries, and log them under projects, tasks, and clients.

If you’re ready to see the full picture of your day and productivity, start your 14-day free trial today. All you need to do is create an account, with no credit card information needed, and you’ll be good to go.

#3 Learn how to say “no”

Sounds like such a silly piece of advice, doesn’t it? How could you, a CEO and a grown adult, not know how to say “no”?

Well, from my experience working with CEOs, most have problems saying “no” and establishing clear boundaries for their availability. They were terrible at communicating those boundaries to the staff and other executives as they didn’t want to seem uncommitted and cold.

And I get it. Saying “no” can be unpleasant, especially if someone desperately needs your input. But there’s a way to say “no” graciously, without feeling like you’re disappointing people.

Here’s how to learn to say “no”:

1. When someone approaches you with a commitment, pause to think. Give yourself at least 1-3 minutes to consider the proposal.
2. Think of your/company’s goals. If the proposal doesn’t align with the goals, your response should be a firm “no”.
3. When you are in the process of declining a proposal/commitment, feel free to offer alternative solutions. For example, if a podcaster has invited you to join their special episode on C-suite challenges and you don’t have time to attend, politely decline the request and ask if your CMO can join the episode instead (if the CMO is on board, of course).

#4 Focus on results, not tasks

As a CEO, you are most likely result-oriented.

However, when it comes to your overall life and time management, you are more task-centric. You tend to focus on scratching all the 3456322 tasks off your list because it feels so good.

But what if you switched focus from tasks to results in every part of your life? From performance to (daily) progress? That would make you feel more accomplished, as you would be achieving predefined goals and completing your to-do list.

Here’s how you can switch your mindset:

• Define key performance indicators (KPIs) for each task you want to complete to measure success.
• Plan to complete tasks around desired outcomes一always ensure you are meeting goals.
• From time to time, analyze KPIs and the results of this approach so you can adjust strategies and see how you can be even more result-focused.

#5 Find a strategic approach to your routine

Your daily routine can also be viewed through a strategic lens.

Not a strict strategic lens but a more structured, time-bound, tactic way to view your days.

Here’s what I mean:

1. Implementing a more strategic approach to your daily routine means periodically reviewing your goals and tasks. Sometimes, the goals are just right; sometimes, you’ll need to pivot them.
2. Being tactical regarding daily time management also means asking for other people’s input. If you feel like there’s an option to streamline your day but don’t know how to do it, reach out to your staff, executives, mentors, and trusted individuals to gain a new perspective.

Incorporating other people’s feedback can provide valuable insights you might not have considered. Additionally, this is the time when those buffer periods can come in handy: they offer you the mental clarity to process the new approaches and integrate them into your routine.

After all, the ultimate goal is to ensure that your daily activities align with your broader objectives while maintaining your mental and physical health.

To conclude

Mastering executive time management as a CEO is both an art and a science. It gives you the freedom and creativity to shape your life according to your rules and goals but also requires a strategic approach to your daily routine.

I hope the tips outlined in this article help you navigate the CEO time management challenges effectively. Hopefully, you can build a workday structure that boosts your productivity, keeps your stress levels in check, and allows you to have and enjoy your work/life balance.

And if there is only one thing you should take from this article, it’s that flexibility is key to such a dynamic life you lead. Being open to modifying your strategies shows you can stay agile professionally and personally.