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How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day

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Re: How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day

#21
post #5
post #2

I hate articles that start out with lies. The average tech CEO does not work 11.5 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. There might be a few tech CEOs who work that long, but I am guessing for most of them it isn't a sustainable workload. I actually think the tips here are fine, but the premise that all successful people in silicon valley work ungodly amounts per week are inaccurate. I know many very successfu…

>> The average tech CEO does not work 11.5 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. There might be a few tech CEOs who work that long, but I am guessing for most of them it isn't a sustainable workload. Articles often get to this by counting stuff that you and I would consider not-work time. I read an article about a banking CEO who claimed to work 65+ hours per week. His daily schedule went from 6:00 am to 7:00…

[deleted]

Re: How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day

#22
post #19

Assistance. You retain the help of a full-time or virtual assistant who can help sort through your email to flag what’s actually important, what requires action and what doesn’t. How does this work in practice, in particular with respect to security? i.e. how do you find a trustworthy assistant? Do you have to give them access to your entire spool? How do you deny access to sensitive emails?

there are some awesome companies like zirtual.com

Re: How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day

#23
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill is incredibly smart. And provides interesting advice. It's amazing to me that you can learn nothing from the article. Or that you think CEOs shouldn't take the time to learn from other CEOs.

I didn't even read Bill's article. My comment is not a commentary on the person, but the "feel" of articles like these. There are certainly CEOs that I admire and I'm not advocating that we stick our heads in the sand. But, good grief, how many articles, books, blog posts, talks, etc. about "what successful people do" do we really need? I hate the fallacies they promote: a.) you are too stupid to figure out how to su…

You didn't read the article so you have no idea about the 'feel' of it. You're judging it based on the title (which is on par with judging a book by it's cover).

As with most advice, you should take it with a pinch of salt but it is worth examining it and taking things that seem relevant to you. If you never read anything then you'll certainly close off the opportunity to find something useful.

In this case, the claim about 'hours per day' is something I'll dismiss. However, the idea of 'No templates' for emails is quite useful as is the idea of keeping Playbooks (purely because it's another word for 'documentation' but people don't get excited about that one).

Re: How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day

#24
There is a lot off good advice here. The key is get rid of work. Leaders lead. Do BS work 1-3 times and get rid of it. That's what you have employees for.

If you cannot afford to do that, you're short changing yourself and your company, because you should be out there selling and building, not dicking around with salespeople or linkedin.

Re: How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day

#25
post #13
post #2

I hate articles that start out with lies. The average tech CEO does not work 11.5 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. There might be a few tech CEOs who work that long, but I am guessing for most of them it isn't a sustainable workload. I actually think the tips here are fine, but the premise that all successful people in silicon valley work ungodly amounts per week are inaccurate. I know many very successfu…

I used to think I was not the "80 hour a week" kind of person, because I typically only sit at my desk from 7-5, Monday-Friday. But once you start counting the time you check and respond to emails (which I do constantly), take calls outside of hours, have meetings with people outside of working hours, etc... it's really not hard to imagine 11.5 hour days being average.

Anyone else find the last hour of their evening is taken up by emails/cleaning up their last tasks. Since my first son was born, I have tried to get out of the office earlier, only to find I do MORE work at home after he goes to bed ...

Re: How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day

#26
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't even read Bill's article. My comment is not a commentary on the person, but the "feel" of articles like these. There are certainly CEOs that I admire and I'm not advocating that we stick our heads in the sand. But, good grief, how many articles, books, blog posts, talks, etc. about "what successful people do" do we really need? I hate the fallacies they promote: a.) you are too stupid to figure out how to su…

You didn't read the article so you have no idea about the 'feel' of it. You're judging it based on the title (which is on par with judging a book by it's cover). As with most advice, you should take it with a pinch of salt but it is worth examining it and taking things that seem relevant to you. If you never read anything then you'll certainly close off the opportunity to find something useful. In this case, the clai…

>You're judging it based on the title (which is on par with judging a book by it's cover)

Yes. Of course I am. Repetitive, vacuous, linkbait titles speak for themselves. That's why "linkbait" is a phrase.

Also, if the title of a book is "How to Grow Grapes", then I can guess enough about its contents to determine whether it's for me. So, literally judging a book by its cover is prudent, contrary to popular belief.

I mean, when you browse HN, do you scan the subjects or click and read each article to determine whether it's of interest to you? Likewise, people put thought into the titles of their articles for a reason.

Still, perhaps if there weren't 8 trillion blog posts, books, articles, talks, etc. of this ilk, I'd feel differently. But, as it is, there are.

>If you never read anything then you'll certainly close off the opportunity to find something useful.

I'm certainly in no danger of that. I read a good bit. And, that once included my share of articles, books, etc. of the subject ilk. I am well familiar enough to know that the premise that there is value to be derived from loading up on this kind of stuff is ludicrous and counter-productive.

In other words, I know the value of reading and I also know the value of not reading certain things.

Again, it's not any individual article to which I object. So, your finding a helpful tip in this article is not disproving my point or even addressing it. It's the plethora of such articles, the "path to success" they promote, and the overall false premises upon which they are collectively built.

You're not going to win as a founder/CEO by letting someone else do your thinking for you or by following someone else's path. There are far too many variables that go into success (including luck) and far too many decisions to be made that are unique to you. Such articles implicitly undermine people's confidence by making them believe that they need to imitate others to find success.

Re: How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day

#27
post #25
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think I was not the "80 hour a week" kind of person, because I typically only sit at my desk from 7-5, Monday-Friday. But once you start counting the time you check and respond to emails (which I do constantly), take calls outside of hours, have meetings with people outside of working hours, etc... it's really not hard to imagine 11.5 hour days being average.

Anyone else find the last hour of their evening is taken up by emails/cleaning up their last tasks. Since my first son was born, I have tried to get out of the office earlier, only to find I do MORE work at home after he goes to bed ...

I'm just the opposite. Work doesn't even cross my mind after I run out of the office shouting "Freedom!" My manager once asked why I didn't see a change to a meeting time he made late the night before; I just laughed. Why on earth would I have seen it?

Re: How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day

#28
post #22
post #19

Assistance. You retain the help of a full-time or virtual assistant who can help sort through your email to flag what’s actually important, what requires action and what doesn’t. How does this work in practice, in particular with respect to security? i.e. how do you find a trustworthy assistant? Do you have to give them access to your entire spool? How do you deny access to sensitive emails?

there are some awesome companies like zirtual.com

Hadn't hear of them. Good tip. Thanks.

Re: How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day

#29
post #5
post #2

I hate articles that start out with lies. The average tech CEO does not work 11.5 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. There might be a few tech CEOs who work that long, but I am guessing for most of them it isn't a sustainable workload. I actually think the tips here are fine, but the premise that all successful people in silicon valley work ungodly amounts per week are inaccurate. I know many very successfu…

>> The average tech CEO does not work 11.5 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. There might be a few tech CEOs who work that long, but I am guessing for most of them it isn't a sustainable workload. Articles often get to this by counting stuff that you and I would consider not-work time. I read an article about a banking CEO who claimed to work 65+ hours per week. His daily schedule went from 6:00 am to 7:00…

[deleted]

Re: How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day

#30
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You didn't read the article so you have no idea about the 'feel' of it. You're judging it based on the title (which is on par with judging a book by it's cover). As with most advice, you should take it with a pinch of salt but it is worth examining it and taking things that seem relevant to you. If you never read anything then you'll certainly close off the opportunity to find something useful. In this case, the clai…

> You're judging it based on the title (which is on par with judging a book by it's cover) Yes. Of course I am. Repetitive, vacuous, linkbait titles speak for themselves. That's why "linkbait" is a phrase. Also, if the title of a book is "How to Grow Grapes", then I can guess enough about its contents to determine whether it's for me. So, literally judging a book by its cover is prudent, contrary to popular belief. I…

You are right. There are tons of terrible articles on the web that claim to "have the key to success." Replicating what successful people do isn't the key.

I'm just saying that your comment ("I viscerally hate these articles") belongs on a thread about a crappy article. Not on a thread about great article. This one is by a great entrepreneur and one who interacts with hundreds of smart CEOs. This article is the one others strive to be like. It shares how smart people work - it doesn't tell you how to be successful.

Your comment also belongs on the thread of an article that you have actually read.

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