Eight time management strategies for executives and COOs

Executive overview

Most executives fill their calendars completely, leaving no room to handle what actually matters. The fix is protecting calendar white space, delegating ruthlessly, and aligning your people-time with when people are most receptive.

Protect 40% of your calendar for fires, coaching, and unplanned work — then delegate everything that isn't your genius.

The 60% calendar rule

• Block no more than 60% of your weekly hours with scheduled meetings and recurring work
• Leave 20% as soft-blocked project time; keep the rest genuinely open
• A 50-hour executive should commit to roughly 30 hours maximum
• Constant overtime is a sign the calendar is over-committed, not that you're under-working

People by day, paper by night

• 9:30–11:30 AM: people are available, not yet deep in work — use this for calls, meetings, and relationship-building
• 3:00–5:00 PM: people are in crunch mode — use this for admin, paperwork, and solo work
• Mid-day works for operational and business tasks
• The principle: match your activity type to when others are most receptive

Delegate everything except genius

• Get off your plate anything that drains you, that you're merely okay at, or that you're good at but don't love
• Keep only the work that you're excellent at and that energises you
• Applies equally at home and at work — cleaning, accounting, admin, whatever
• From Dan Sullivan: if it drains you, it belongs to someone else

The stop-doing list

• Every to-do list grows; the stop-doing list forces you to prune
• Filter tasks through ROI: are you getting the highest return on your people, time, and money?
• Low-ROI tasks should be stopped, compressed, or delegated — not just tolerated
• Focus on the critical few versus the important many

Get an executive assistant

• If you don't have an executive assistant, you are one
• A $300k/year executive earning $150/hour should not be doing $15/hour tasks
• An EA doesn't need to be full-time — five or ten hours a week is enough to clear minimum-wage work from your plate
• Shared or fractional EAs work; the format matters less than getting low-value tasks off your calendar

The balance wheel

• Total life balance is a myth — trying to maintain it burns you out
• The balance wheel tool: rate yourself across eight life areas on a 1–10 scale
• Pick two areas to improve this quarter; let the other six slide temporarily
• Recalibrate each quarter rather than chasing permanent equilibrium