How To Manage Your Time Like a CEO

If you want to manage your time like the top 1%, you need to stop following the same old productivity advice and start using a system that rewires your brain.

As a CEO, board member, and investor at some of the fastest growing companies, my life was a firefight. For years,

every second mattered. I had to make time for what drives results, cut distractions, and stay in control when things got chaotic. Today, I'll share a

simple system I use. Borrow what works for you so you can make time for what matters to you. But before you apply this system, there is one question that

can help you cut through the avalanche of online advice. Everyone has the same 160 hours per week, right? Why do the

top performers get dramatically more done without burning out? Jack Dorsey

can run Twitter and Square simultaneously in the same week you and I have. Elon Musk runs more than two

I have. Elon Musk runs more than two companies, same number of hours. These

CEOs don't manage time. They manage

their attention. If you're just focused on the tactics of managing time like batching and prioritizing and time blocking, that's great, but you will

still miss the big picture. It's about

applying what I call the 321 system.

Here's how to do it. The first part of the system is the three roles. Most

people fail at productivity because they're playing the wrong game for their level. Taylor Swift is a perfect

level. Taylor Swift is a perfect example. In the early days, she wrote

example. In the early days, she wrote songs and she recorded songs. Today she

has to write, produce, record, perform, make music videos, run business operations, do philanthropy, manage brand partnerships. All of it while

brand partnerships. All of it while managing a global tour schedule. The

time management system that worked for her early on would kill her productivity completely today because her game has changed and her role has changed. How

she manages her time has to be completely reinvented. Marshall

completely reinvented. Marshall Goldsmith says the right thing. What got

you here won't get you there. Habits

that tend to work in simple phases of life actively harm you when you graduate to a role that demands complex responsibilities. That's what CEOs learn

responsibilities. That's what CEOs learn the hard way. If you want to manage your time like the 1% elites, you have to understand the role you're playing right

now. And there are three roles. Maker,

now. And there are three roles. Maker,

marker, multiplier. First, maker. This

is relevant when you're juggling handful of priorities or if you're an individual contributor. Your role mostly requires

contributor. Your role mostly requires that you do everything yourself. Stay in

late, stay in your lane, heads down, deep work, details, diligence. You have

clear deliverables, clear timelines.

Your time management has to build with that role in mind. Now there are tons of folks I know around the world who love staying in that role throughout their

entire career in tech, in finance, in pharma, research, several other vertical. And it's a totally acceptable

vertical. And it's a totally acceptable path for time management and career management if that's what lights you up.

But then some of you will want to graduate from maker to marker role. Now

you have to manage 10 to 20 priorities in life all at once. You start managing a team. Maybe you have a life partner or

a team. Maybe you have a life partner or a family. So in this phase, you can't

a family. So in this phase, you can't touch every single thing on your own every single time. And you shouldn't.

Think of it this way. You are

transitioning from the maker to the marker mode. Everybody else in your team

marker mode. Everybody else in your team will produce research, code, business plans, whatever they're working on, but you are the marker. You're the editor.

You give feedback. You give comments to refine their work. You don't take their work and start rewriting. You build

processes that automate everything.

You're doing and you're also delegating.

That's the mix. The challenge in this phase is to understand what you can delegate and where you have to invest your own time. Anything that's

missionritical to your project or your company or your brand, that's where you need to be totally hands-on. And from

there you graduate to the third role, the multiplier role. That's when you have 30, 40, 50 responsibilities.

You're managing a very large team. In

this phase, you have to become what Eric Schmidt calls the most expensive router because your job is not to create. Your

job is not to review what other people create. Your job is to recruit,

create. Your job is to recruit, orchestrate, and align your team. You

focus on connecting people. You make

strategic bets. You route requests from one corner to the other corner of your team. You have to stop obsessing over

team. You have to stop obsessing over every little detail and focus on the big picture. Taylor Swift again is a great

picture. Taylor Swift again is a great example. Her early career was about

example. Her early career was about being a maker. Today, she's a maker in music, but she's a multiplier across the rest of her life. The core insight here

is that if you don't know what role you're playing, you'll manage your time the wrong way. Delegating when you're a maker and micromanaging when you're a

multiplier are both recipes for failure.

You of course have to come up with tricks and techniques to manage your time better, but only after you know what role you're in. Otherwise, your

calendar will fill fast with the wrong things and you won't get anything done.

Or more alarmingly, no one around you will get anything done either. But the

way you manage your attention is not just about the role you play. It's also

about which zone you're in. The second

part of the system is about two zones.

Airbnb's founder almost killed the company by following textbook time management advice. So from 2016 to 2020,

management advice. So from 2016 to 2020, Airbnb's founder Brian Chesy did what every business school, every business

book, and every VC will tell you to do.

hire great people and get out of their way. Let them do their magic. Nothing

way. Let them do their magic. Nothing

wrong with that advice because when he was doing that, the business was growing. Brian was enjoying the

growing. Brian was enjoying the multiplier role. But around year 2020,

multiplier role. But around year 2020, Airbnb's growth started slowing down.

Cost started exploding. Co had changed the dynamics of every business including Airbnb. Chesy had to make a difficult

Airbnb. Chesy had to make a difficult decision. step in, get his hands back on

decision. step in, get his hands back on the wheel, and steer the ship through the icebergs. He removed layers of

the icebergs. He removed layers of leadership to make the company lean and flat. He got deeply involved in product,

flat. He got deeply involved in product, in every critical decision, every important detail, and the result, the company delivered over 500 product

improvements in just 3 years. Airbnb

went back to being a profitable company.

That's how the zones affect your time management and your priorities. There

are two zones, wartime and peace time.

When Airbnb was collapsing, that was wartime. That's when you have to roll up

wartime. That's when you have to roll up your sleeves and get in there. Once the

company stabilizes, step back again, become a multiplier. The key insight is that your zone dictates your role.

wartime zone can force you to move from a multiplier to a marker or from a marker to a maker. Your system has to be this dynamic. You've got to know which

this dynamic. You've got to know which zone you're in and act accordingly. When

you're building a startup or when you're in a tough market or swimming in the red ocean with sharks, it's war time. And

when you're in wartime, all bets are off. But even if you master your role

off. But even if you master your role and your zone, there is one final piece that separates the top 1% from everyone

else. The third and final piece of the

else. The third and final piece of the system is the one non-negotiable. I have

seen many CEOs struggle with this until one brutal question changes everything.

When I served as the CEO of our AI company few years ago, I had a great team. The timing was great and we had a

team. The timing was great and we had a great product. So we were one of the top

great product. So we were one of the top 20 fastest growing tech companies in the US according to deoid fast 500 and we

were absolutely in wartime zone. Every

day was just plain chaos and every night I would stay up wondering if we can hire the right people fast enough whether our customers were delighted to have us as

their partners. And then I started

their partners. And then I started realizing that I was becoming a bottleneck in every decision. I had to

ask myself that one question. What is

the one thing that only I can do? That

one thing I should focus on while I delegate everything else. And I thought about it and I realized that we were growing because of our mission. If I

could focus on building relationships with our people and with our customers, then I could articulate our mission even more clearly. I focused on that one

more clearly. I focused on that one thing, relationships, on recruiting, on culture, on internal communication, on

customer partnership, every touch point that helped me build the relationships.

The rest of it I delegated. I still had daily standups with our sea level team.

We had our weekly leadership meeting, product meetings, tech meetings, finance meetings. That's the operating rhythm of

meetings. That's the operating rhythm of the company. And you need that to build

the company. And you need that to build the execution muscle. But for me personally, my proactive focus was on that one thing that I couldn't delegate,

which was building missiondriven relationships. Now, I'm not sharing this

relationships. Now, I'm not sharing this to show off or anything, but to showcase how you can put your CEO hat on. Your

321 system is about three roles, two zones, one non-negotiable. You have

identified your one non-negotiable. But

how do you actually delegate everything else without it all falling apart? The

best leaders don't manage time, they manage trust. Steve Jobs and Johnny IV

manage trust. Steve Jobs and Johnny IV are the gold standard when it comes to this. Johnny IV was the chief design

this. Johnny IV was the chief design leader at Apple and he designed iPod and iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch. These were

complex tasks, right? The designs had to be tasteful but they had to keep in mind the cost. Cost of manufacturing, cost of

the cost. Cost of manufacturing, cost of supply chain, all of that. So Steve Jobs and Johnny would meet every day for lunch and then they could go for a walk

and they would talk about business, design, aesthetics, art. Steve would ask deep questions. He would review

deep questions. He would review everything. Every detail mattered to

everything. Every detail mattered to him. But here's the thing, Johnny never

him. But here's the thing, Johnny never felt micromanaged. Why? Because Steve

felt micromanaged. Why? Because Steve

Jobs was there as a partner, not as a boss. He was in the details to learn

boss. He was in the details to learn everything, not to control everything.

And that's what most people miss when they move from doing to delegating.

Because leading is not about time management, it's about trust management.

You review things but to coach. You

connect but to provide context. You step

in but to unblock others. So your time management outside of your own deep work is spent on developing and managing trust. And how do you find the right

trust. And how do you find the right rhythm for delegation? It depends on three things. If your teammate is new to

three things. If your teammate is new to the task, work alongside them. Build

trust by giving comfort. If they have some experience, guide them closely.

Review steps, but build trust by giving clarity. And if they're experts, step in

clarity. And if they're experts, step in to unblock. Build trust by giving

to unblock. Build trust by giving context. That's what Steve Jobs was

context. That's what Steve Jobs was doing with Johnny IV. If new hires get too much freedom, they will fail. And if

experienced people get micromanaged, they will quit. You lose both ways. So

that's trust management. Trust speeds up everything. And remember, you don't need

everything. And remember, you don't need to be a CEO or a founder to apply any of these ideas, right? You can still apply to your calendar with your teammate, to

your roommate, your partner, your spouse, your kids, whoever. So, here's

what I would invite you to do this week.

Pick any of the following. Define your

role, name your zone, write your one non-negotiable, or delegate one repeatable task. And remember the

repeatable task. And remember the eternal principle. You cannot control

eternal principle. You cannot control time. You can only steward the time you

time. You can only steward the time you have. In the end, good time management

have. In the end, good time management helps you make time for what matters to you personally, things that bring you joy and happiness.

Because your time is finite. If you like this video, I

is finite. If you like this video, I hope you find time for another one here that I think you will enjoy. See you

next week. Thank you and I love you.