Before you touch anything on your desk today

A UK study featured in HR Review found that over half of a director’s working day disappears into low-value busywork. Not the team’s time. Your time. The person whose decisions determine the direction, the revenue and the survival of the business is spending more than half their day on things that someone else could handle or that should not exist at all. I have been that director. I know exactly how it happens and I know how quietly it costs you.

The fix I use personally comes down to two questions I ask myself before I touch anything. Can I delegate this, and will it make or save me money? If the answer to both is not yes, it does not belong on my desk.

Not later. Not tomorrow. Now. The directors who consistently outperform are not working harder. They are working on an entirely different set of things and they got there by being ruthless about what deserved their attention and what did not.