A CEO’s Guide to time management with Time Blocking
As a CEO, your most important precious commodity other than your mind is YOUR TIME. How you spend your time and structure your day, week, month and year is the key to your success as a leader, and most importantly, the key to your efficiency.
Managing your time is key to avoiding burnout and maintaining a healthy life BALANCE.
As I onboarded my first EA, I found Time Blocking to be very helpful and effective. I would like to share the steps I took and what I learned regarding this technique to possibly help you.
Step 1:
Know your Chronotype- This is your body's natural disposition to be awake or asleep at certain times. Choosing what you do during your most productive hours will be key to mapping out and time blocking your week.
Example: I am not a morning person, and never have been. Ask me for a 7 am meeting and I can make it, but not without a double espresso. I understand I am most alert during the hours of 10:30 am and 4:30. After 4:30 pm, I go into shutdown, and need to rejuvenate. I also know I can easily pick back up at around 6:30 and can work until 10 pm or later.
You will find you also have a rhythm that you have essentially lived with all of your life, although you may have had to change things up due to having young children to tend to or a job or school that requires you to be somewhere at specific times around the clock.
No matter how much we try, our bodies won’t change this preprogrammed chronotype clock. Oh how I envy those early risers who can be up to smell the coffee and see the sun rise. I will have to watch these people on UTube!
Step 2:
Think through the following:
What time of day do you function best? Are you more creative or alert at a certain hour(s) during certain days? A Monday at 8 am may look entirely different than a Friday at 8 am.
How much time do you need in between meetings or appointments? Are there certain days you prefer to have certain types of meetings? IE prospect meetings vs employee meetings.
When do you need food or a rest during the day?
When do you need to give attention to your family or furry friends?
Step 3:
Start Mapping out your week:
168. This is the number of hours in a week we have to work with, no matter who you are. That is 24 hours times 7 days. That is it! No more time, no matter what. It is within those 168 hours we have to find BALANCE between personal and professional to be most productive and live a full life.
Make a weekly chart using a 24 hour calendar of your desired schedule and how you see your day, then your weekly schedule play out. Write down everything from sleep to walking the dog, etc.
Start with “YOU time” Plug in everything you currently do for you, then your family and then social, or what you want to do. This is your opportunity as an example to start that exercise program you have been thinking about, schedule in that yoga class, or volunteer at your child’s school for an hour on a weekly basis. Add in vacations too! I highly recommend you spend time thinking through this piece alone to help you bring clarity to your personal life outside of work.
Next, add in your Professional Obligations, Meeting Cadences, Time blocking for when you do your best for certain meetings, and down time. This is an exercise you will most likely partner with your EA to fill in the blanks, but you can start charting it out on a daily basis knowing your Chronotype and most productive hours of the day.
Step 4:
Share your Calendar and Your Thoughts with You Executive Assistant
Talk over your rough draft with your EA. Whether you are new to having an Executive Assistant or have an existing one you have worked with, this is the time to let them help you manage your time blocking. It is very important for you to do the leg work ahead of time. Then share it with your EA.
If this is entirely impossible, bring your EA into the process as you begin, but know it is your time to dream big and be completely honest with yourself. The goal is to get this done.
There could be something you would like to add to your weekly calendar that would surprise them so in either case, be very honest and open to the process. Dream big. Talk it through with them as they are your right hand trusted advisor and will support you as you make your choices.
Step 5:
Ask your EA to time block your calendar
Block all of the activities and events you have outlined both personal and professional. This calendar can sit alongside your calendar as a template or more effectively, coinciding with your availability to schedule new meetings by connecting with a Calendly link as an example, for new client meetings during your new client meeting times and days which you have already established.
Follow this calendar for a week or two as best possible and determine if it is working for you. Talk it through with your EA and let them know if you need some changes as you try this new method. You will find once you have a template for when and where you need to be with a balance of putting you and your family first, you will have more control over your 186 hours and feel as if you are running your life, not vice versa.
Step 6:
Lastly, revisit your time blocking at least annually. I have found when I get stuck in a rut, it is time to change things up especially in my personal life and swap out as an example fitness classes for a different class or meeting times with clients or candidates for a different time block that better suits the time of year or business needs.
It has worked well for me, and I hope this works for you as well!
And then, Trust and let go! Remember as I say, the world wouldn’t turn as smoothly without the help of an excellent Executive Assistant, and this is one example where they will help you go from good to great!
Good luck!
