Time Management For Leaders

The reality of business in the 2020s is we’re constantly juggling **time, quality, and cost**—push one and the other two wobble.

For leaders, the real edge is deciding *where you invest your attention*, especially in a post-pandemic, hybrid-work world where Slack, Teams, Zoom, and email can make you faster… and somehow busier.

## Why does leadership time management feel harder now, even with better technology?

**Because technology increases speed *and* volume, so leadership work expands to fill every gap in the day.**

You’d expect tools to save time, but in many organisations they create more decisions, more messages, and more “quick questions” that interrupt deep work. In multinationals, this shows up as meeting overload and stakeholder alignment. In startups, it’s constant context switching between customers, hiring, and delivery. Either way, leaders feel the clock pressure rise as expectations rise “because we can.”

**Do now:** Identify the top two time amplifiers (meetings, chat, email, approvals) and put a hard cap on them this week.

## What is the “Tyranny of the Urgent,” and how do leaders escape it?

**The Tyranny of the Urgent is when urgent tasks keep you permanently busy and quietly crush the important work that prevents future crises.**

You sprint from one urgent item to the next and call it productivity, but it’s usually just reactivity. The escape plan is boring—but powerful: capture tasks, prioritise them, and execute in order. Leaders without a reliable system get pulled into firefighting, and over time that leads to stress, poorer decisions, and burnout. Think of it as a leadership operating system: you don’t “try to prioritise,” you run a process that prioritises for you.

**Do now:** Pick one important task you’ve postponed and schedule it as a protected calendar block (not a vague intention).

## How should leaders prioritise when everything feels important?

**Prioritising means choosing the few actions that protect outcomes—then letting the rest wait, move, or disappear.**

Not all tasks are equal, yet many leaders treat them like they are. Use an executive filter: impact on revenue, customer experience, risk, or capability. Combine that with a simple rule: start each day with a **written, prioritised list** and work through it in that order. Most leaders *say* they do this; very few actually do it consistently. If you don’t decide what matters first, your inbox, your team, and your calendar will decide for you.

**Do now:** Write tomorrow’s top five tasks, rank them 1–5, and finish #1 before opening email or chat.

## How does the four-box matrix (urgent/important) actually work for a leader?

**The goal is to spend more time in “important but not urgent,” because that’s where planning, thinking, and prevention live.**

Use the classic four-box (Eisenhower/Covey-style) matrix to sort your workload: (1) important + urgent (crises), (2) important + not urgent (strategy, coaching, planning), (3) not important + urgent (interruptions), (4) not important + not urgent (time-wasters). If you live in the urgent/important box, your health and productivity suffer over time. The second box is where leaders win: reflection, prioritisation, and planning that stops emergencies from spawning. Executives at firms like Toyota (continuous improvement) and Rakuten (speed and execution) both benefit when leaders protect this quadrant.

**Do now:** Block 60–90 minutes this week for “important/not urgent” planning—and defend it like a client meeting.

## How do you stop low-priority work and social media from stealing executive time?

**You reduce “low-value urgency” and remove frictionless distractions, then replace them with deliberate recovery.**

Leaders lose surprising hours to low-priority requests, endless scrolling, and “just checking” feeds—Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, news, and random videos. Rationally, we shouldn’t spend time there, yet we do. If you need a break, take a break that restores you: a 30-minute walk, a proper meal, fresh air, or a short reset between meetings. In high-paced environments (Japan’s large corporates, US tech, and Asia-Pacific regional roles alike), leaders who protect energy protect performance.

**Do now:** Turn off non-essential notifications and remove one distraction app from your home screen for seven days.

## What system should leaders use: daily list, time blocking, delegation, or batching?

**Use all four in one practical rhythm: prioritised list → time block → protect → delegate → batch similar tasks.**

Once you’ve decided what matters, make an appointment with yourself and block that time—then protect it as vigorously as you would a client meeting. Next, minimise “not important but urgent” work by delegating where possible. Finally, batch similar tasks (approvals together, calls together, admin together) to reduce ramp-up time and stay in flow longer. This is how executives reclaim hours without lowering standards—especially as of 2025, when constant messaging makes fragmentation the default.

**Do now:** Choose one batching rule (e.g., email twice per day) and communicate it to your team so expectations reset.

## Conclusion: your calendar is your leadership strategy

Time management isn’t about doing everything—it’s about doing the most important things, consistently, while resisting the urgent noise. Track your time and you’ll see the truth (it’s confronting). You can’t reclaim the hours already wasted, but you can claim the hours ahead by planning, protecting focus, and building a system your team can rely on.

Key next steps for leaders (this week):

• Block one “important/not urgent” session for planning and reflection

• Start each day with a written, prioritised top five

• Delegate one recurring “urgent but not important” task permanently

• Implement one batching rule for communications or admin work

• Track your time for three workdays to find your biggest leak

FAQs

**Yes—time tracking is worth it, because it shows you what your week really looks like, not what you intended.**

Even three days of tracking can reveal the meetings, interruptions, and low-value tasks you didn’t notice.

**Yes—time blocking works, but only if you defend it like a client meeting.**

If your “focus block” is always movable, it’s not a schedule—it’s a wish.

**Delegation can feel risky, but it’s how you build capability instead of becoming the bottleneck.**

Use a clear definition of done, checklists, and short feedback loops to protect quality.

Meta description (140–160 chars): Practical time management for leaders: escape the tyranny of the urgent, use the four-box matrix, time block, delegate, batch tasks, and track time.

Keywords: time management for leaders; tyranny of the urgent; Eisenhower matrix; prioritisation; time blocking

Author Credentials

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie “One Carnegie Award” (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban “Hito o Ugokasu” Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan’s Top Business Interviews, which are widely followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.