When you lead a company, you constantly feel like you’re racing against time. No matter how fast you work, there’s always another email, meeting, or project waiting.
Tech CEOs typically work up to 14 hours daily for 300 days yearly—that’s 4,200 hours annually! Yet, even this massive time investment often feels insufficient.
The constant feeling of “falling behind” creates intense stress, making many wonder how successful leaders stay productive while others struggle to keep up.
The difference lies in how they structure their days—their CEO Schedule.
CEO Secret: The best CEOs don’t just manage time—they master it, turning the typical 24-hour day into what feels like 29 hours of productivity. See how we can help you do that with a ProAssistant by your side!
Why Time Management Is Critical for CEOs
Running a company is an all-consuming job.
According to Harvard Business School professors Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria’s comprehensive study of 60,000 hours’ worth of data on 27 CEOs, executives work an average of 9.7 hours per weekday.
They also conduct business on 79% of weekend days (averaging 3.9 hours daily) and 70% of vacation days (averaging 2.4 hours daily). In total, CEOs work approximately 62.5 hours per week.
The real problem isn’t just how much work there is—it’s juggling so many different kinds of tasks that demand a CEO’s attention. Without good time management, CEOs can easily feel pulled in too many directions by competing needs and back-to-back meetings.
Effective time management for executives allows CEOs to:
- Be able to easily shift between the two contexts
- Understand when you can be in personal mode versus business mode
- Focus on high-value strategic activities
- Delegate effectively to your leadership team
- Maintain your physical and mental well-being
- Live a balanced life by setting clear boundaries between personal and professional time
Perhaps most importantly, how CEOs spend their time sends powerful signals throughout the organization.
Their calendar choices prove what they value, where they believe the company should focus, and how others should prioritize their own time.
Key Components of a CEO’s Daily Schedule
Obviously, there are different kinds of CEOs. There are CEOs who are in startup mode, and many times, they’re a company of one.
There are CEOs in mature business models who have a company with tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or billions of dollars in revenue. And there is a whole team and infrastructure in place that will affect their business and their schedule.
When focusing on small and medium-sized businesses, the key components of a CEO’s daily schedule typically include:
- Direct Customer Issues: Making sure you’re dealing with any direct customer issues. Successful CEOs prioritize customer interaction. Surprisingly, Porter and Nohria’s research found that CEOs only spent about 3% of their time with customers—a figure most executives found shockingly low when confronted with it. The most effective leaders systematically schedule customer time, whether through formal meetings, site visits, or participating in customer events.
- Team Development and Organizational Culture: According to Harvard Business Review’s study of a CEO’s approach to calendar management, roughly 25% of a CEO’s time goes toward developing people and relationships. They have one-on-one meetings with direct reports, leadership team meetings, talent reviews, and activities that shape the company’s culture. Effective CEOs don’t just attend to the tangible aspects of business; they recognize that organizational culture and team capability drive long-term success. CEOs must be careful not to become like race car drivers and treat home like a pit stop.
- Strategy and Marketing: Dealing with the strategy, current marketing positioning of the company to get more customers and continue to grow. Top CEOs put about 21% (according to Porter and Nohria’s research) of their time into refining, communicating, and executing their strategic vision. They’re reviewing direction, making those major resource decisions, making sure everyone’s aligned across the organization.
- Sales and Prospecting: Handling any sales calls and prospecting outreach to gain customers. Tom Gentile, CEO of Spirit AeroSystems, exemplifies a customer-focused approach, spending more than twice as much time with customers as the average CEO. “My focus on customers comes from my years at GE,” Gentile explains. “Leaders there spend a lot of time with customers.“
- External Representation: CEOs serve as the public face of their organizations. They spend approximately 30% of their time on external activities (backed by the “CEO time allocation” study by HBS). This includes:
- 16% with business partners (customers, suppliers, bankers, PR teams, lawyers, etc.)
- 5% with their board of directors
- 9% on other commitments (industry groups, media, philanthropy)
- Personal Well-Being and Renewal: The most sustainable CEO schedules incorporate time for physical health, family, and intellectual renewal. The CEOs in Porter and Nohria’s study slept 6.9 hours per night on average and dedicated about 45 minutes daily to exercise. So, go home at a reasonable hour every night and take all your vacation days; this is a formula to be incredibly effective.
Managing your schedule based on issues of that importance, rather than having to reschedule and move around meetings with your direct reports on a weekly or monthly cadence is a better way to deal with your schedule.
How Top CEOs Structure Their Day
A lot of it comes down to personal preference:
- Are you a morning person?
- Are you an evening person?
- Will you get out of bed and start work right away?
Or do you need to make sure the kids get to school, make sure you get your workout in, and handle a meal plan?
The specific structure of a CEO’s day varies widely based on these personal preferences, company needs, and individual life circumstances.
It really depends on the individual and what season that person is in. It may change over the years as kids move on or out of the house, which then changes the CEO’s morning routine.
Despite these individual differences, we’ve noticed several patterns when looking at effective executive schedules.
Morning Routines
Many successful CEOs leverage the early morning hours when mental energy is highest.
According to a survey of Fortune 500 leaders conducted by John Rampton and Chris Stowell, the average executive wakes up at 6:15 a.m., with some starting even earlier:
- Apple CEO Tim Cook begins his day at 3:45 a.m., sending emails
- Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour starts at 4 a.m to 5:30 a.m., with tennis
- 64% of Inc. 5000 CEOs rise by 6 a.m. or earlier
Morning routines often include exercise (averaging 45 minutes daily), personal development time, and strategic planning before the day’s meetings begin.
Scheduled Focus Time
Effective CEOs protect blocks of time for deep work, strategic thinking, and preparation. This is challenging because about 75% of CEO time is already scheduled in advance, which leaves very little room for spontaneous interaction or reflection.
Tom Gentile of Spirit AeroSystems found that his uninterrupted time was too fragmented—65% of his alone time came in blocks of just 30 minutes or less, compared to 28% for the average CEO.
After recognizing this pattern, he worked to create longer blocks for deeper thinking.
Meeting Management
CEOs spend about 72% of their work time stuck in meetings – that’s roughly 37 meetings every week, according to the first HBR study we mentioned.
The most effective executives are very intentional about these interactions:
- About 42% are one-on-one meetings
- Around 21% involve small groups of 2-5 people
- Only about 5% are those large gatherings with 50+ people
Smart CEOs are really deliberate about meeting length. Many are challenging that standard one-hour meeting slot, going with 45 or even 30-minute sessions instead.
As one CEO advised, “Whatever they ask for, cut it in half!”
End-of-Day Practices
Successful CEOs often follow specific end-of-day rituals to maintain effectiveness and prepare for tomorrow.
For example:
- Kenneth Chenault, former CEO of American Express, wrote down three things he wanted to accomplish the next day before leaving the office.
- Buffer CEO Joel Gascoigne takes a 20-minute evening walk at 9:30 pm to disconnect and process the day, he writes in a post on his blog.
- Former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg used to completely shut down her phone at night.
These practices help executives mentally disengage from work and prepare for the next set of challenges.
CEO Schedule Example
Again, it’s a personal preference. It depends on how and when the CEO likes to work. Some CEOs are morning-focused CEOs and many of them are night-owls.
Morning-Focused CEO Schedule
This schedule works well for early risers who feel most productive in the first half of the day (especially the first few hours early in the morning):
| Time | Activities |
| 5:30 AM – 7:00 AM: Personal Time | Wake up and do light exercise (30 minutes) Review news and industry updates (15 minutes) Family breakfast and preparation (45 minutes) |
| 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM: Strategy and Planning | Review the day’s priorities and prepare for key meetings Address critical emails only |
| 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM: High-Priority Meetings | Leadership team stand-up (30 minutes) One-on-one with CFO on quarterly projections (45 minutes) Break/transition time (15 minutes) |
| 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM: External Focus | Customer call with major account (45 minutes) Potential partnership discussion (45 minutes) Buffer for follow-ups (30 minutes) |
| 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM: Working Lunch | Lunch with direct report or industry contact Or personal time/break if needed |
| 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Operational Reviews | Product development review (45 minutes) Sales pipeline discussion (45 minutes) Break/catch up on urgent communications (30 minutes) |
| 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM: Focus Time | Strategic project work or preparation for board meeting Limited interruptions |
| 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM: Team Development | One-on-one coaching sessions with direct reports Address any emerging critical issues |
| 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Wrap-Up | Review the day’s outcomes Plan priorities for tomorrow Clear urgent communications |
| Evening: Family and Renewal | Family dinner and activities Limited email check at a designated time Reading and preparing for the next day |
Night Owl CEO Schedule
This schedule suits those who hit their creative stride later in the day and find their best thinking happens when others are winding down:
| Time | Activities |
| 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM: Gradual Start | Wake up and light breakfast Review overnight emails and urgent matters Personal care and preparation |
| 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM: Team Alignment | Daily leadership check-in (30 minutes) Address team questions and remove blockers (30 minutes) One-on-one with key direct report (30 minutes) |
| 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM: External Engagement | Customer or partner meetings Investor or board member calls Media or public relations activities |
| 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Working Lunch | Informal team lunch or Quick meal while catching up on industry news |
| 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM: Collaborative Work | Cross-functional project reviews Decision-making meetings Strategic planning sessions |
| 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Energy Recharge | Exercise or personal time Light administrative work Preparation for evening productivity |
| 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM: Family Time | Dinner and family activities Complete disconnect from work |
| 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM: Deep Focus Work | Strategic thinking and planning Creative problem-solving Distraction-free productivity time |
| 11:00 PM – 12:00 AM: Next-day Preparation | Review and organize priorities for tomorrow Clear final communications Personal wind-down routine |
Time Management Strategies for CEOs
When it comes to time management strategies for CEOs, there are a few approaches that work really well:
1. Zero-Based Calendar
Popularized by Cathryn Lavery and Allen Brouwer, co-founders of BestSelf Co, the zero-based calendar requires accounting for every hour in your day, leaving no blank space on your calendar.
Calendar co-founder John Hall explains that this approach ensures “if something isn’t scheduled, it doesn’t deserve your attention.”
This method forces executives to:
- Schedule everything in advance—professional and personal tasks alike, from meetings to breaks.
- Get clear on time estimates for each activity by reviewing past calendars and tracking time.
- Allow buffer time (up to 50%) for unexpected issues—a concept championed by Greg McKeown in “Essentialism”.
- Create a couple of “free” blocks to allow for accessibility and spontaneity.
The thing about zero white space on your calendar is that it totally changes your relationship with time.
When you’re accounting for every hour, you tend to work with more focus and you become way more mindful about how you’re spending your day.
It helps cut down on that wasted “in-between” time and helps protect your personal commitments by setting clear boundaries.
2. Time Blocking
Then, there is time blocking on the calendar. A lot of CEOs work from the mentality of if it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t get done.
And that can be a very successful way to make sure that you’re handling even things you don’t like to handle if you’re at least marking them on your calendar.
CEOs who use this approach basically segment their day into focused chunks for specific activities—strategic thinking time, customer interactions, team development, administrative stuff, and personal renewal.
The big advantage here is avoiding that constant context-switching that just kills your productivity.
3. The Pomodoro Technique
And the other technique that works is the Pomodoro Technique, where you set a timer for a certain amount of time and you’re going to focus on that specific task, project, or responsibility.
You work in these focused sprints—usually about 25 minutes—then take short breaks. This really helps with maintaining concentration while avoiding burnout.
It’s particularly good for those tasks that need deep focus or the ones you might otherwise put off.
4. Regular Calendar Audits
Smart CEOs regularly analyze how they’re spending their time relative to their stated priorities.
Tools like Tackle can sync calendar events with meeting agendas. It allows executives to track time and capture productivity insights.
Tom Gentile found his calendar audit with Harvard professors Porter and Nohria “felt like a very intensive performance review.”
The process revealed that he was spending too little time in one-on-one meetings with direct reports and too much time on email—insights that prompted immediate changes.
5. Strategic Delegation and Playbook Development
First Round Capital partner Bill Trenchard advises that for anything you do more than three times, you should document your process in detail.
Building these playbooks allows CEOs to hand off responsibilities to others in a way that maintains quality and consistency you expect.
Take Uber as an example.
They managed to scale to over 10,000 cities across 70 countries because they developed these detailed launch playbooks that could be executed by teams without the CEO having to be involved at every single step. That’s powerful.
6. Hiring Executive Assistants
A skilled executive assistant can dramatically increase your effectiveness as a CEO through what we call the five performance multipliers.
Instead of getting completely swallowed up by meetings, double bookings, and that never-ending flood of emails, you’ll have a dedicated professional who:
- Works as your business partner, representing you and sharing your concerns about the business.
- Serves as your chief of staff, becoming that singular point of contact that filters what needs your attention and what doesn’t.
- Functions as a project manager, handling events and key initiatives.
- Works as your assistant/scheduler, managing your calendar with precision.
- Handles personal assistant duties, helping your life outside work run smoothly.
Many CEOs discover that implementing these strategies becomes significantly easier with dedicated support.
Upwards of 30% of a CEO’s working hours are typically devoted to tasks that could be outsourced to a qualified assistant.
If you’re ready to reclaim those hours and focus on what truly drives your business forward, consider partnering with a ProAssistant who brings 5+ years of experience supporting executives at globally recognized brands.
Do your best work, not your busy work — schedule a free consultation today!
Common Mistakes CEOs Make in Scheduling
Even experienced executives fall prey to scheduling pitfalls that diminish their effectiveness:
Micromanagement and Over-involvement
A lot of CEOs, whether they admit to it or not, are micromanagers (not in a good way). They feel like they need to be in every meeting.
This leads to constantly shifting and juggling meetings in their calendar. When CEOs do this, it creates a ripple effect throughout the organization.
Direct reports must constantly change their own meetings to accommodate the CEO’s availability. This cascading effect can disrupt the entire team’s productivity.
The worst thing is that executive assistants or administrative assistants sometimes adopt this same behavior when supporting their CEO.
They might prioritize the CEO’s schedule above all else without considering how these changes affect everyone else in the company.
True delegation means trusting others to handle important matters without direct CEO oversight for every step. Don’t create unnecessary stress and inefficiency throughout your organization.
Double and Triple Booking
CEOs also double and triple book themselves. Without thinking through:
- Does this really need to be on my calendar?
- Is there some other way to get this information?
Allow me to comment versus sitting in a half-hour meeting or an hour-long meeting.
This over-scheduling often leads to rushed meetings, last-minute cancellations, and constant calendar reshuffling that affects the entire organization.
CEOs who allow their calendars to be filled by others’ priorities rather than proactively scheduling around their own objectives quickly lose control of their most valuable resource.
Insufficient One-on-One Time with Direct Reports
Many executives underestimate the importance of regular, uninterrupted time with key team members.
Regular one-on-ones build trust, enable delegation, and provide crucial intelligence about what’s really happening in the organization.
Delegating tasks to your executive assistant creates space for these important conversations.
Email Overreliance
Email offers the illusion of productivity but often proves inefficient for executive communication.
Tom Gentile spent 137 hours (55% of his unscheduled time) on email during his 13-week tracking period—time he later recognized could be better spent on face-to-face communication.
Ignoring Personal Well-Being
Short-changing sleep, skipping exercise, and working through vacations might seem like dedication, but they ultimately undermine a CEO’s effectiveness.
In his book “The 4-Hour Body,” Tim Ferriss shares a telling conversation with Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group.
When Ferriss asked Branson for productivity advice, Branson simply replied in one word, “Work out,” explaining that his regular exercise routine actually added about four extra hours of productive time to each day.
Treating All Crises as Equal
Many CEOs fail to properly categorize emergent issues, treating all problems as “hair on fire” emergencies. This creates unnecessary stress and diverts attention from genuinely important matters.
Effective executives develop frameworks for quickly assessing which issues truly require their immediate attention.
All of that kind of affects if they’re being successful in how they’re managing their time frequently.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Let’s address some common questions about CEO schedules and time management:
How Many Hours Do CEOs Work on Average?
ProAssisting co-founder and the author of the “29-Hour Work Day”, Ethan Bull, has an interesting take on this question: “This is a funny question because as a CEO myself, I think that work thoughts and ideas and issues happen during personal time, outside of the nine to five framework. I don’t think you can put an average number on it unless you’re talking about the season that the business is in.”
If you’re talking about a startup, you’re probably looking at 80, 90, or 100 hours a week or maybe more!
If you’re talking about a mature, small, or medium-sized business that the CEO has effectively taken themselves out of the day-to-day, you could be talking just a few hours a week.
It all depends.
What Are the Best Productivity Apps for CEOs?
The ones that you decide to use. A problem for CEOs is the new shiny object syndrome, where they believe all of the marketing hype around an app or productivity process, buy into it, get everyone else to buy into it, and then don’t follow through with it, creating zero consistency.
So, the best productivity apps or scheduling techniques are the ones that you actually follow, which allows your assistant and your team to create frameworks around knowing where you’ll be and when you’ll be.
Common CEO favorites include:
- Calendar Management: Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Calendly
- Task management: Asana, Trello, AirTable, Todoist
- Note-taking: Evernote, OneNote, Notion (Google Keep or Apple Note also suffice for minimalists)
- Focus Aids: Focus@Will, Forest, Freedom
- Communication: Slack, Zoom, Meet, Microsoft Teams
How Should a New CEO Structure Their First 90 Days?
It all depends on what season the business is in, as well as if this is a new industry and a completely new business for you as a CEO, or do you have some industry or institutional knowledge that cuts down your learning curve?
Ethan says, “My father was brought in to run a restaurant, which he ended up running for over 20 years, and he made it a conscious point to not do anything, not change anything for the first 6 months, and just watch the business run. Then that gave him a foundation to start to identify the top level things that he wanted to change, and implement those changes on a systematic basis.”
How Do CEOs Handle Unexpected Crisis Situations?
The first step in handling a crisis situation is to place it accurately on the crisis scale:
- Is this, on a scale of 1 to 10, a 10 of hair on fire, our business will die if we don’t deal with this ASAP?
- Or is this a quote-unquote crisis that is actually a level 2 and may have long-term implications on the business, but in the short term, you do have the time to handle the crisis in a way that provides you proper time, proper insight, and proper information gathering?
So, you need to rate the crisis honestly. And that can be a problem for CEOs. Sometimes, all crises end up being at level 10 hair on fire, when in fact, they’re not.
And the problem with the CEO treating crises like that is that their direct reports and the company as a whole reacts to that, as opposed to keeping their eye on the ball in the North Star of the organization.
Conclusion
Let’s be honest—maintaining an optimal CEO schedule is challenging, even with the best intentions and strategies. This is where having the right support makes all the difference.
ProAssisting offers remote executive assistant services for C-suite executives, entrepreneurs, board directors, and business owners who need to reclaim their time without the cost of hiring a full-time employee.
Unlike typical virtual assistants who provide basic support at low hourly rates, ProAssistants offer advanced administrative and strategic support for 50-80% less than hiring in-house. You’re just a 30-minute meeting away from saving hours of your time every week. Schedule your free consultation today and take the first step toward simplifying your work life!
