How to manage your time like an influential CEO

Not all productivity comes from rigid schedules. Spanx founder Sara Blakely makes room for thinking and intuition by carving out quiet time each day before her work begins. This habit is about creating thinking time, not just productive hours.

“I’ve created what my friends call my ‘fake commute’. I get up an hour early before I’m supposed to go to Spanx, drive around aimlessly so that I can have my thoughts come to me,” she says.

Her approach highlights that silent reflection can spark ideas and clarity that meetings often don’t.

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For Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, perfectionism can be a trap. He urges leaders to make decisions with enough information to be effective rather than waiting for complete certainty.

“Most decisions should be made with somewhere around 70 per cent of the information you wish you had… if you wait for 90 per cent, in most cases, you’re probably being slow.” 

Faster decisions free up leaders’ time and reduce bottlenecks across their organisations.

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In the same vein, Google CEO Sundar Pichai encourages leaders to see decisions as iterative rather than permanent. “Most choices aren’t permanent, and you can learn from your mistakes if you make one,” he says.

This mindset helps reduce overthinking and keeps momentum high. By seeing decisions as experiments rather than life-or-death moments, leaders can act with speed.

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Philanthropist and the co-founder of the Gates Foundation, Melinda Gates frames time management as a values exercise. If leaders don’t actively decide what deserves their attention, their schedules will be shaped by other people’s priorities instead.

“If I didn’t fill my schedule with things I felt were important, other people would fill my schedule with things they felt were important,” she says.

Gates’ emphasis on setting boundaries and defining what matters most aligns with advice she has shared about saying “no” to things that distract from core priorities, and allowing space for deep thinking and impact.

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Thoughtful prioritisation and delegation are key for leaders who balance focus with team empowerment. Chryseis Tan of Berjaya Corp and Curate Group champions starting the day with clarity and entrusting capable teams with meaningful work.

“I like to give myself a head start by waking up earlier and reviewing tasks for the day so I can focus on priority tasks first. I also believe that effective delegation is key to getting things done,” she says.

Nasaa Narmandakh, the CEO of Mongolia-based investment company Monpolymet Group, learned that trying to be everywhere at once slows both leaders and teams down. Trust and delegation, she argues, improve outcomes for everyone involved.

“Like many leaders, I’ve occasionally fallen into the trap of overcommitting my time, trying to be involved in every aspect of the business... Empowering others not only helps me in getting my work done better but also aids in their growth and job satisfaction.”

This habit balances authority with support for others’ growth.

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes time scarcity is often self-inflicted. By refusing to let meetings and inboxes dictate his day, he stays focused on what truly matters.

“There’s plenty of time. If you prioritise yourself properly and make sure that you don’t let Outlook be the controller of your time, there’s plenty of time to do anything. Just don’t do everything. Prioritise your life. Make sacrifices.”

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Emma Walmsley, the CEO of pharmaceutical giant GSK, highlights a lesser-discussed leadership challenge: how a CEO’s curiosity can unintentionally trigger wasted effort across an organisation. Thoughtful restraint becomes a form of respect.

“I’ve really struggled with how you don’t screw up other people’s time management by your enthusiasm. You ask an innocent question, and suddenly lots of people are working on it.”

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