We talk about time like it’s currency – something we can save, spend, or lose. We rush through days as if they’re being billed by the hour, then look back and wonder where it all went.

I’ve spent much of my career trying to master time – and failing, repeatedly – until I realized that time isn’t something you manage. It’s something you respect. That shift in thinking changed everything for me.

Early in my leadership days, I equated long hours with productivity. If I was the last one to leave, surely that meant I was leading by example. What it actually meant was that I was tired, reactive, and too busy managing moments instead of momentum.

The older I get, the more I understand that how we use time says more about our leadership than almost anything else. We can delegate decisions, share authority, even automate work – but time remains the one resource that tells the truth about our priorities.

In the pages ahead, I want to share a few lessons I’ve learned the hard way – the small disciplines and mindset shifts that helped me use time less like a stopwatch and more like a compass.

They aren’t secrets. They’re reminders. But when practiced consistently, they can change how you work – and how you lead.

Be the Fastest Stop on the Approval Highway

One of the simplest ways to earn your team’s respect is to never be the reason their work stalls.

Managers spend a surprising amount of time approving things: time sheets, travel requests, expense reports, purchases, budgets. None of it feels particularly strategic, yet every one of those items represents someone waiting to move forward.

Early in my career, I learned this lesson the hard way. I had a team member who politely reminded me three times to approve a purchase order. Each time, I told myself I’d “get to it after lunch.” By the time I finally did, the vendor’s quote had expired, and the entire process had to restart. I had cost my team a week because I couldn’t spare five minutes.

That moment taught me something important. If your approval sits in an inbox, it’s not just a delay in workflow. It’s a message to your team about what you value. When people have to chase you down to get something signed, they start to believe their time matters less than yours.

Now, I make it a personal rule: if something requires my approval, I handle it right away. It’s usually a two-minute task that clears someone else’s path. Keeping those small things moving means my team can focus on the big ones.

And here’s the real benefit: when you remove yourself as a bottleneck, you give time back to everyone around you. In leadership, that’s one of the best gifts you can give.

Schedule What Actually Matters

Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”

That line hits me every time I read it. Most of us spend our days reacting to what’s loudest instead of what’s lasting. The ringing phone, the new email, the “quick question” from a colleague – they all feel urgent, but they rarely move us closer to our real goals.

Stephen Covey called it “investing your time” rather than spending it, and I’ve learned that the best leaders do exactly that. They make time for the things that build capability, not just activity. Teaching a deputy how to run a report, building a new process, preparing for a client strategy session – none of it is urgent, but all of it is important.

The trick is to turn those quiet priorities into visible ones. I live by my calendar. If something matters, it gets a spot there. Not a “when I have time” sticky note, but a real block of space that says, this hour belongs to progress.

Modern tools make this easier than ever. Outlook, Google Calendar, Teams – they all let you protect your time before someone else fills it. Schedule an hour each day for what’s important and not urgent, and treat it like any other meeting. Don’t cancel it. Don’t ignore the reminder. Show up for yourself.

That one habit changed how I lead. When I stopped reacting to what was loud and started committing to what was meaningful, the quality of my work, and my time – improved overnight.

Your future self will thank you for defending that hour.

Email Is Not Strategy

It still amazes me how many people start their day by diving straight into email. I used to do it too. Coffee in hand, I’d open my inbox and convince myself I was being productive because I was “getting things done.” The truth is, I was just reacting.

It’s odd to think that my most important task of the day would simply appear in my inbox by magic. Yet, that’s how many of us behave. We treat email like a to-do list that someone else writes for us.

Here’s the problem: email represents other people’s priorities, not yours. Every message is a request, a reminder, or a problem waiting to be solved. And while it’s tempting to live in that constant loop of replying and refreshing, all it really does is keep you busy without moving you forward.

Now, I start my day differently. I take five minutes to scan for anything truly urgent, but that’s it. Then I turn to my actual priorities – the projects, people, and decisions that create impact. Email gets its own scheduled time later in the day, just like any other meeting.

Reaching inbox zero feels good, but it’s not the same as progress. The goal isn’t to clear your inbox. It’s to clear your path.

Don’t Let Projects Die Between Steps

Every leader knows the frustration of watching a simple project stretch endlessly. You add up the task times on paper – maybe a few hours total – yet weeks later, it’s still not done.

I used to think this was just the nature of teamwork until I watched it happen up close. We once had a project that should have taken one morning to complete. Four steps, four people. Simple. Susie had the first task and finished by 9 a.m. Bob had the next step, but his morning was full of meetings. Then he grabbed lunch, answered a few messages, and by the time he looked up, it was 3:30. He decided to start tomorrow. You can guess how that went.

Our four-hour project stretched into a week because no one was managing the space between the steps. That’s where most projects lose their energy.

Managing projects isn’t just about assigning tasks. It’s about managing momentum. The longer the gap between steps, the harder it is to regain focus and urgency. That’s where good leadership comes in – not just asking who’s doing what, but when they’re doing it.

Now, whenever I lead a project, I ask for two commitments: when someone will start and when they’ll finish. Those two small details close the gap that kills momentum.

If you can shorten the time between steps, you’ll double your team’s speed without adding a single resource. That’s not just efficiency. That’s respect for time – yours and everyone else’s

Focus Beats Multitasking, Every Time

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard someone say, usually in an interview, “I’m great at multitasking.” I always smile, but inside I know the truth: no one really is.

Outside of walking and chewing gum, the human brain isn’t built to do two things at once. What we call multitasking is really rapid task-switching – bouncing our attention back and forth until we lose track of both. There’s a reason people talk about giving something their undivided attention.

I’ve seen this play out plenty of times, including with myself. Picture this: you’re updating a budget spreadsheet while listening to the monthly sales call. You think you’re being efficient, but you’re not really hearing what’s said on the call, and your spreadsheet ends up riddled with small mistakes. Later, you spend twice as long cleaning up the work you thought you’d already done.

Publius Syrus said it best over 2,000 years ago: “To do two things at once is to do neither.”

That wisdom still holds up. Focus makes you faster, and it makes your work better. When you give one task your full attention, you’ll finish it sooner and with fewer errors than if you tried to juggle three.

Now, technology can multitask – you can’t. Let your tools do what they do best. Start an automated report, launch a system update, run the laundry if you’re working from home. Then step away and focus on one meaningful task while the machines take care of the rest.

Attention is a finite resource. Spend it carefully, and it pays back in time saved, quality improved, and stress reduced.

Cage the Squirrels (and Guard Your Focus)

Some days it feels like my brain is a park full of squirrels, each one racing in a different direction. Every ping, buzz, and pop-up notification is another squirrel darting across my path, daring me to chase it.

The truth is, distraction has become the default. Between email alerts, Teams messages, texts, and calendar reminders, we’ve trained ourselves to react constantly. Every interruption comes with a cost – it takes time to find your way back to where you were, and even longer to recover your focus.

Focus is a muscle. You have to protect it.

When I really need to get something done, I close what I don’t need, silence notifications, and flip my phone face down. Those few seconds of setup buy me hours of productivity. And when a stray thought or reminder pops into my head, I jot it down on a notepad instead of chasing it. Writing it down tells my brain, “I won’t forget this,” and lets me stay on task.

We can’t stop distractions from existing, but we can stop them from running the show.

Be conscious of where your attention goes, because that’s where your results go too.

“Focus isn’t about saying yes to what’s important. It’s about having the courage to say no to everything else.” – Steve Jobs

Guard your focus and invest those hours wisely.

Looking Ahead

Time isn’t something you manage once. It’s something you practice. Every decision – what to approve, when to reply, how to focus – is a small act of leadership. Use it well.

I’ve learned that how we spend our time says more about who we are than any title or achievement ever could. Each moment is a choice between reacting and leading, between being busy and being effective. The leaders who stand out aren’t the ones who do the most – they’re the ones who give their time purpose.

So invest it wisely. Respect it deeply. And when you catch yourself chasing squirrels or getting lost in the noise, remember: time isn’t the enemy. It’s the mirror.