If you keep running around putting out fire after fire while your most important goals get back-burnered…this one’s for you. As managers, we’ve all found ourselves stuffing a week’s worth of work into a day and still feeling behind. But time management doesn’t have to be an endless cycle of scrambling and stress.
Over my career, I’ve studied the time tactics of business leaders and discovered some simple yet powerful productivity hacks. Start making these seven strategies a habit and you’ll be amazed at how much more you can achieve with the same 24 hours:
1. Prioritise the 20% that leads to 80% of results
We managers tend to struggle with the Paradox of Success – overloading ourselves with more and more activities as we achieve more responsibility. The antidote? Pareto’s 80/20 principle.
Start your day by pinpointing the 20% of tasks that will lead to 80% of your most important results. Schedule those 1-3 peak priorities into dedicated focus blocks before anything else can sneak into your calendar. Proactively protect that time from distractions and incoming interruptions.
Corporate coach Alison Green has her clients identify their “unicorn priority” for each day – that one non-negotiable task that makes everything else become easier or unnecessary. For me, that’s often deep work on client deliverables or coaching sessions. Protect your unicorn!
2. Timebox checklist tasks into batches
Beyond your top priorities, you likely have a litany of checklist/busywork tasks like answering emails, administrative duties, etc. These bite-sized to-dos tend to pile up into unscalable distraction loops if you let them pepper your calendar haphazardly.
Instead, batch process checklist items into strict timeboxes at the least productive times of your day. For example, dedicate periods like 9-10am and 4-5pm for triaging emails and admin work, while ring-fencing peak focus hours like 10am-2pm for big priorities only. Close communication channels during those peak blocks.
3. Schedule personal peak hours
Speaking of most productive hours, we all have unique chrono-types that dictate our natural daily energetic cycles. Perhaps you’re a night owl who peaks in the evenings. Maybe you’re a morning lark. Get radically honest about when you operate at your highest mental and physical level each day.
Then, schedule your most intensive projects to align with those personal prime times. Save easier grunt work or meetings for your non-peak hours. I have one high-performer client who blocks 5-8pm Monday through Thursday as her most prolific solo work window. By respecting her body’s natural rhythms, she maximises output.
4. Timeboxed meetings with uptight agendas
Meetings have an uncanny ability to sprawl and devour our schedules if not rigorously controlled. Protect your calendar from infinite meeting hypertrophy by:
• Timeboxing all meetings to an agenda-clearing length (e.g. 25 or 50 mins to leave buffers before the next commitment)
• Circulating a start-to-finish agenda that clearly maps out discussion points and objectives
• Getting voracious about sticking to that agenda timing and parking looping tangents for later
• Ending meetings early if all agenda points are cleared sooner
And if you’re the host, you have permission to pleasantly but firmly end things on time even if certain people try running long. “I need to hop to my next commitment now, but we can pick this back up tomorrow.”
5. Single-task like a maniac
Our brains were not designed for today’s endemic employer of fractured context switching. Rapidly volleying between multiple work streams induces cognitive switching costs that eat into focus and degrade the quality of our outputs.
Instead, get into the habit of single-tasking on your most important priorities. Immerse yourself in Do Not Disturb modes and get into the “flow” of deep work for extended periods. Even brief mental shifts like opening Slack or email massively disrupt that state of peak concentration.
6. Become a escape artist
When we feel overwhelmed by infinite to-dos and fires, procrastinatory habits creep in out of anxiety, fatigue, or helplessness. One of my favourite mind tricks for avoiding procrastination loops? Time escaping!
Give yourself a finite, strict time window (say, 45 minutes) to obsess and worry about an anxiety-inducing project or problem fully. Get all those nagging thoughts out of your system in that container. Then, set a timer to “escape” from that worry window and shift back into productivity sprints. Any anxieties that try creeping back in, you can say “I’ve already dedicated time for stressing about that today – back to work now.”
7. Refresh with bio-hacks
Maintaining energy and mental stamina is crucial for managing productivity and avoiding draining procrastination spirals. That means building rejuvenation rituals into your workday:
• Set a standing or stretching reminder every 50 minutes to combat sitting fatigue
• Go for periodic 10-15 minute walks to recharge and gain new perspective
• Practice box breathing exercises throughout the day (inhale 4 count, hold 4 count, exhale 4 count, repeat)
• Make sure to drink water regularly – dehydration kills focus
• Step outside for direct sunlight exposure to optimise your circadian rhythms
Take energy management seriously and you can stay in peak productivity flow for extended creative sprints.
