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Writer's pictureLenny Richardson

How CEOs Manage Their Time

Middle aged CEO working on multiple things at his office desk

What sets apart highly effective CEOs from the rest is their mastery of time allocation. In fact, a 2018 study by the Harvard Business Review found that top CEOs dedicate an average of 43% of their time to tasks that create high value for the business and 24% to building relationships that foster growth, while limiting administrative duties and unproductive meetings. This focus on prioritizing meaningful tasks drives the success of both the individual and the organization. As Dorie Clark, author of The Long Game, highlights, "Strategic patience and time management is critical for leaders—success comes from those who consistently make time for what matters most, even amidst daily demands."


Effective time management is crucial for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and freelancers alike. Managing time wisely not only leads to repeatable success but also fosters personal satisfaction by ensuring that goals are consistently met without overwhelming stress.

In a role as demanding as a CEO, where every decision impacts the future of a company, time management is what separates those who struggle to keep up from those who thrive. High-performing CEOs understand that time is their most valuable resource and using it efficiently can create a ripple effect of productivity throughout the organization.


By developing strong time management skills, aspiring CEOs can transition from merely maintaining the business to becoming visionary leaders who drive sustained growth and long-term success. This guide aims to help you learn the same methods used by top performers to manage time like a highly regarded CEO.


Table of Contents- How CEOs Manage Their Time


Step 1: Understand Time as a Currency

Hourglass on sand

Years ago, I wrote a book called Better Than Gold, which was a short guide on how College and High School students could better allocate their time to the demands of school. While doing research for this book, I realized that the overwhelming majority of people didn't truly seem to value their time.


Just think about people you might know in your life. How often do people spend entire days, binging Netflix on the couch? Perhaps they constantly suggest that the day just seems to escape them. Days, weeks, and months go by and they never truly seem to progress in life. Sure, they have big aspirations and they talk about the trips they'd like to take, the skills they'd like to learn, and the projects they'd like to begin. But it never seems to happen. Perhaps you've even felt this way before.




This is a consequence of not truly valuing time. Imagine someone managed to snag your wallet while you were out at an event. You noticed quickly and cancel your cards. However, you suddenly remember that you had $62 dollars tucked away. Would you be upset or nonchalant about it? For many people, they'd be furious having just lost a decent chunk of cash.


Is the feeling justifiable? Sure. But what if you were out at the event and someone forced you into a conversation about a topic you hate? What if the conversation went on for 20 or 30 minutes? How would you feel about that? Many people might be uncomfortable. But I tend to find that they wouldn't necessarily be mad or upset. The reason for this, which I point out in my book, is that many people can't see time. Because of this, it's easier to lose track of time and think very little of it. It's abstract. However, money is more tangible. Even in its digital form, you can still see a number in your bank account. It's simpler to conceptualize what exists and what doesn't.


However, the ability to turn your time from an abstract concept into a more tangible resource is the barrier that separates an individual from mediocrity to greatness. Time is not just an abstract concept for CEOs; it is a valuable currency that must be invested and managed wisely. For high-performing executives, every hour represents an opportunity to advance their company's goals, innovate, or drive growth.


Much like financial resources, time can be allocated, budgeted, or wasted. Successful CEOs treat their time as their greatest asset, recognizing that the return on investment (ROI) of how they spend it is critical to achieving success. By strategically "spending" their time on high-value tasks such as building relationships, steering company strategy, or cultivating innovation, they increase the likelihood of driving sustainable growth and long-term success.

Time, like currency, is finite. Every day presents a fresh bank of hours that can either be squandered on unimportant tasks or invested in activities that offer high returns.


CEOs who understand this view their time as a portfolio that requires diversification. They may invest in delegation, hiring assistants or utilizing tools that help free up time for more impactful work. For instance, automating low-priority tasks or outsourcing responsibilities like administrative work ensures that their time is spent on activities with greater strategic importance.


By doing so, they optimize their time investment, increasing the ROI in areas that directly contribute to the company’s bottom line, such as new business development, leadership, and innovation.


Successful CEOs don’t just spend time—they invest it. They treat their hours like capital, making thoughtful decisions about where to allocate it. The smartest leaders look for ways to maximize their productivity by ensuring that the time spent is always contributing to long-term goals.


This mindset shifts the focus from simply being "busy" to being productive, as they prioritize time management practices that lead to consistent growth and results. In essence, when CEOs leverage their time effectively, they multiply the value of that time, achieving more and positioning their businesses to thrive in the competitive marketplace.


Step 2: Manage Your Day


Mechanical clock with an intricate design

How you structure your day will determine your overall success. Show me a man's calendar and I can show you the direction of his life. I'm sure you've heard of people complain about the day not being long enough. We've all heard at least a handful of people moan about how much they'd get done...if only they had a little more time.


These types of people are simply lying to themselves. The reality is that they have plenty of time. They just don't know how to use it effectively. And due to this lack of skill, they find themselves overwhelmed when they reach the end of every day feeling like they're fighting an uphill battle.


True equality is difficult to achieve. Everyone is unique, different, and offer a wide variety of skills, perceptions, degrees of intelligence, and experiences that make it nearly impossible for us to be equal in any way. However, one thing we all have in common equally is 24 hours in a single day. Time is the great equalizer. How you spend your time will determine your outcome in life. Use your 24 hours wisely and you could be the next Jeff Bezos.

Use your 24 hours improperly and you could be the young woman full of potential and destined for greatness that fizzled out before her career began. It's truly up to you and how you choose to structure your day.


But how exactly does one effectively structure their day for success? Personally, I highly recommend starting with a planner or scheduling tool of some kind. From there, break your daily tasks down by using a technique known as chunking.


Breaking down your day into manageable chunks is essential for optimizing your productivity. With 1,440 minutes available in a day, and approximately 1,000 of those minutes being productive, it’s crucial to be intentional with how that time is spent. Allocating time wisely requires a structured approach—starting with identifying your highest-value tasks and planning your day around them.


By breaking your day into smaller, focused blocks of time, you create a sense of control over your schedule and prevent distractions from derailing your progress. This practice also allows you to make the most of those 1,000 productive minutes, ensuring that each block of time contributes meaningfully to your goals.



One highly effective way to make the most of your time is to calculate the cost of every meeting or task. For instance, if your team spends an hour in a meeting and the collective time spent equates to $11,000 in terms of employee salaries and resources, that meeting must generate at least $11,000 in value for it to be a productive use of time.


CEOs and leaders need to weigh the ROI of meetings and tasks—ensuring that each meeting has a clear agenda and actionable outcomes that align with the company’s broader objectives. By attaching a monetary value to time, you create accountability and ensure that resources are not being wasted.


To further improve time management, it’s important to allocate time intentionally. This means not only planning for critical tasks but also setting aside time for reflection, strategic thinking, and breaks. Overloading your day with back-to-back meetings or tasks can lead to burnout and decrease overall productivity. By creating intentional gaps in your schedule for deep work and rest, you allow for more creative thinking and problem-solving. In the end, time is one of the most valuable assets you have, and treating it like currency—where every minute must generate value—will help ensure consistent, measurable success.


Step 3: Manage Your Year




Fun fact about me: 99% of the time, I have no idea what day it is. Mondays, Saturdays, and Thursdays are all more or less the exact same. The reason for this is because I stopped tracking days long ago and I simply track my output from sun up to sundown.


Whether it's a Tuesday or Sunday is irrelevant. Personally, I highly recommend it. While most people dread Mondays and "starting their week", I don't. I don't dread Mondays because a Monday is the exact same as a Friday to me. Every day, I have a series of key tasks I'd like to get done. The day just becomes a matter of executing my tasks and enjoying the day to the best of my ability.


CEOs should shift their perspective on time from days to hours to better manage their workload and goals. The 4,000-hour rule helps to break down the year into smaller, manageable segments. With 4,000 productive hours per year (based on a 50-hour work week over 50 weeks), this approach enables CEOs to allocate time efficiently, ensuring that they focus on tasks that matter most. Breaking the year into hours rather than days allows for greater precision in planning, avoiding the trap of underestimating the time required for strategic initiatives. By managing time in this way, CEOs can improve not only their productivity but also their team's effectiveness.


Allocating approximately 1,000 hours per quarter gives CEOs a clear framework for goal-setting and progress tracking. These hours should be divided based on high-priority goals, with time allocated according to the importance and complexity of each task. CEOs should estimate how long each key objective will take, creating a flexible schedule that can adapt as needed. The more accurately these hours are distributed, the easier it becomes to stay focused, measure progress, and ensure that deadlines are met without unnecessary pressure. This method provides structure, offering a big-picture view of how time should be spent on an annual, quarterly, and even weekly basis.


Leveraging the skills of the team is also essential for maximizing the value of those 4,000 hours. CEOs cannot—and should not—handle every task themselves. I cannot emphasize this point enough. I've had many clients who are the owners of their business or high-ranking executives. Despite them likely having enough money to train and pass key tasks on to others, they try to do it all themselves.  You must learn how to delegate effectively. It's literally impossible to do everything yourself and at some point, you'll reach a wall in which your overall output will be capped.




Delegating tasks that are not directly tied to their highest priorities frees up time to focus on strategic decision-making. By involving the team and distributing responsibilities according to their strengths, CEOs can ensure that the company’s annual goals are achieved efficiently. This not only optimizes time management but also fosters a collaborative environment where everyone is working toward shared objectives.


Step 4: Adapt and Optimize

Adapting to a new mindset of time management can indeed be challenging, particularly for those who are used to more traditional work methods where time is often seen as limitless. To shift towards effective time management, it’s essential to adopt a mindset that values time as a finite resource, much like money, and aims to optimize how every minute is spent.


This requires being open to new systems such as time blocking, delegating, and automating lower-value tasks. The more you embrace these methods, the easier it becomes to prioritize the tasks that matter most, and you'll begin to see the results in both productivity and personal satisfaction.


The journey toward optimizing your time isn’t linear, and it often involves trial and error. Learning from mistakes is a crucial part of the process. You might discover that some methods work better than others based on your work style, but continuous improvement is key. Evaluate what's working and adjust what's not. The commitment to this mindset requires discipline, but the payoff—gaining control over your schedule and maximizing your productivity—makes it worth the effort. The more you commit to these new strategies, the more you'll see the compounding benefits over time


Conclusion


Managing time effectively is essential for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and freelancers. By viewing time as a currency, breaking down days and years into manageable segments, focusing on problem-solving, and continuously adapting, one can achieve repeatable success. Implement these strategies to optimize your time and reach your goals. By following the steps presented in this article, CEOs can manage their time effectively and lead their businesses to greater heights.


If you want to learn more about how to improve your Health, Wealth, or Relationship pillars, check out some of the other articles on my website.


headshot of lenny richardson

Leviticus Rich is the premiere productivity expert and productivity coach located in the DC Metro area within Northern VA.


Leviticus has helped thousands of people improve their time management, focus, and productivity by offering some of the best, science-backed advice and techniques in the modern era.


P.S. If you need help managing your productivity and destroying procrastination, click the link here to sign up for free productivity coaching.


If you want more resources or guides on how to boost your finances, fitness, or lifestyle, click the link here.

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