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How To Be The CEO of Your Own Life (6 Unexpected Tips)

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Business

Business/Leadership Takeaways: “CEO of Your Life” Time-Management Tips

1) Be Selective with Access (Availability as a Leadership Trap)

  • Core idea: Don’t be reachable 24/7; scarcity creates value and helps you lead.
  • Leadership tactic: If people can’t execute when you’re unavailable, they may not be the right fit.
  • Execution move: Batch communication (email/calls/messages) into a couple of daily windows instead of constant checking.
    • Suggested cadence: mid-morning + end of day
  • Research cited: Harvard research suggests professionals who guard time are viewed as more effective and high value.
  • Direct principle:

    “If you’re always reachable, you’re a responder. If you have boundaries, you are a leader.”

2) Set Strategy Weekly (End Firefighting; Run the Week Like a Game Plan)

  • Framework/process: Sunday night “game day strategy”
    • List weekly priorities.
    • Think in day-by-day purposes from Monday through Friday.
    • Define success: “What must happen on Monday so we win by Friday?”
  • Operating system principle: If you don’t assign purposes to each day, you’ll end up reacting and losing weekly control.
  • Anti-pattern: Monday firefighting + meetings + sporadic deep work won’t achieve meaningful outcomes.

3) Protect Health as a Performance System (Health Isn’t Optional)

  • Core idea: Treat health as a foundation for decision-making, patience, focus, and team leadership.
  • Execution moves (implemented examples):
    • Schedule workouts first thing (morning).
    • Remove common stimulants/food triggers (speaker mentions cutting diet coke, caffeine, gluten, dairy).
    • Sleep target: 8 hours nightly
      • Bedtime alarm at 9:30pm
      • Phone to sleep at 9:30pm
      • Wake at 5:30am
    • Meal plan/batching: pre-decide ordering or batch meal prep to reduce daily randomness.
  • Business logic: Health affects workplace execution directly; “too busy” is framed as a weak excuse to neglect fundamentals.

4) Treat Calendar as an Asset (Measure Time Like Money)

  • Framework/process: Calendar audit using a “money test”
    • Ask: “If this time was money, would I spend it here?”
    • Identify blocks/meetings that don’t move goals → delegate or delete
  • Operational example (inbox constraint):
    • Speaker realized they spent hours/day in the inbox.
    • Change introduced: limit inbox to 15 minutes/day
    • Result: more time for LinkedIn content, a new podcast, networking, and travel—without inbox anxiety.
  • Research cited: Harvard Business School study (27 executives):
    • Top performers spend about 43% of time on pre-planned strategic moves
    • Others are more reactive (email/Slack/ad hoc requests)

5) Review, Adjust, and Run Feedback Loops (Don’t “Grind” the Same Week)

  • Framework/process:
    • Weekly review (Sunday): adjust priorities for the coming week.
    • Daily review: block 15 minutes end-of-day to reflect and re-plan tomorrow.
  • Research cited: HBS study: workers doing 15-minute end-of-day reflection performed 23% better after 10 days.
  • Football/game analogy: if the play isn’t working by late game, you adjust—scheduling and execution should follow the same logic.
  • Daily prompts:
    • What worked?
    • What didn’t?
    • What will I move tomorrow to improve outcomes?

6) Protect Deep Work Time (Focus Blocks + Interruption Control)

  • Framework/process: Schedule deep work before email/calls/messages.
  • Execution rules (speaker’s operating method):
    • Block a 90-minute deep work window in the morning.
    • Turn off distractions: Do Not Disturb, close Slack, put phone out of reach, shut down inbox.
    • Why it matters: interruptions create large “reset costs.”
  • Research cited: University of California study:
    • After an interruption, it takes 23 minutes 15 seconds to return to the original task—so even a few interruptions can erase major focus time.
  • Leadership principle:

    “Most successful people get paid to think/decide/create,” not to be busy.

Concrete KPIs / Targets Mentioned

  • Email/inbox time cap: ≤ 15 minutes/day
  • Deep work block duration: 90 minutes
  • End-of-day reflection time: 15 minutes
  • Sleep target: ~8 hours nightly
  • Bedtime routine targets: phone sleeps at 9:30pm, wake at 5:30am
  • Strategic time benchmark (research): top performers spend ~43% of time on pre-planned strategic work

Example “Playbook” You Can Apply

  • Sunday: set weekly priorities day-by-day; define what “winning” looks like by Friday.
  • Daily:
    • end with 15-min retro + tomorrow re-plan
    • run 1 sacred 90-min deep work block before any email/messages
    • batch comms into 2 windows only
  • Calendar hygiene:
    • treat time as money; delegate/delete low-ROI commitments
  • Health as operations:
    • schedule workouts + fixed sleep windows + batch meals to stabilize energy and decision quality

Presenters / Sources Mentioned

  • Presenter: The speaker (name not provided in subtitles)
  • Sources/citations:
    • Harvard research (time-guarding linked to higher effectiveness/value)
    • Harvard Business School (27 executives; 43% strategic vs reactive time)
    • University of California (interruption recovery time: 23 minutes 15 seconds)

Original video