The Real Cost of Not Protecting Your CEO Time
If there’s one thing a CEO has to do for success, it’s take the time to work on their own business. Your time is your most valuable resource. If you don’t create foundational boundaries around this, you’ll learn the real cost of not protecting your CEO time.
When you don’t prioritize and strategize how to spend your time, boundaries collapse. Boundaries don’t fail because people are bad at boundaries; they fail because business owners haven’t prepared by making crucial decisions ahead of time, instead of in the moment. Decision fatigue - from making dozens of small decisions a day - is exhausting and draining.
Without a clear operating structure, boundaries erode every time a client asks for something out of scope, and you react in the moment by saying yes. Or by answering every call when the phone rings. Or accepting a project when your schedule is full.
CEO time lets you make those decisions ahead of time - you know what you are doing this week, you know how you handle certain client situations, and you have reserved time for emails, calls, texts, and everything else that needs your attention.
Business owners aren’t overloaded with work; they simply lack structure. Without time to organize, prioritize, and strategize, business owners react to urgency before priority. CEO time is required if you are going to grow or scale a sustainable business.
If your first thought was that you don’t have time for that, respectfully, you’re wrong. As a small business strategist, I’m here to tell you that when you set boundaries, create a framework with processes and systems, you will have the time you need.
How can you prioritize CEO time?
When your calendar is running you, and you're jumping from an email to a meeting, to putting out a fire, and back again, you are taxing your brain. And a drained brain loses focus and makes mistakes. You need boundaries. As the CEO of your business, it’s your responsibility to learn and know your best cadence when it comes to managing your time.
If you create some sort of deliverables for your clients, like graphic design or copywriting, there’s always that pressure to do client work first. If you're tired at the end of the day, you’ll push through for client work. But you’ll make excuses for not working on your own business. I constantly suggest that my clients make sure their businesses take precedence, or it won’t get done.
Here’s a new mantra for you:
If you don’t schedule it, it won’t happen.
CEO time provides clarity before you take action. You understand what you’re doing, why, and when. We’ve all had moments when potential tasks race through our minds, so we start doing the easiest things to check something off the list. But that doesn’t strategically move your business forward.
Do you have a round-the-clock, open-door policy and an “always available” calendar?
Interruptions affect your focus and productivity. Do people just show up at your office door and call or text you at all times of the day? Be firm about your availability by creating office hours. When you make a doctor’s appointment, you choose from what’s available. This is the same.
Constant availability “feels” responsive, but it causes problems. Maybe you block client meetings, but don’t officially commit to anything else. This leaves you very little time or mental space for strategic thinking and planning. Without scheduling and prioritizing, everything seems to have the same level of urgency.
This is where a framework with processes and systems to handle daily tasks and occurrences is non-negotiable. These shouldn’t be personal preferences that you lean on when you feel like it. With the correct framework, you prevent addressing each issue as if it’s the first time and handling it differently every time. It’s necessary for productivity and consistency.
FAQs
How do I protect my CEO time once it’s on my calendar?
You can’t just block an hour and leave it empty. That’s how other urgent but less important things slide into your CEO time. You need to put the specific tasks there, like tasks for marketing, bookkeeping, business development, etc.
Where do I even start?
I have all of my clients start with a CEO Hour each week, to close out the week and plan for the following week. They check in on their timelines for their goals, client work, and personal responsibilities.
I do a weekly CEO Hour and 90-day goal planning. Isn’t that enough?
No. Things change, shift, and pop up every day and every week. Ideally, an hour or more each day assures that you’re prepared - you have a plan and a strategy for getting things done for your business.
CEO Momentum gives you a dedicated container for your CEO time - combining weekly planning, quarterly focus, and ongoing support so working on your business actually happens.