FORTUNE: "How I Work"
"FORTUNE: How I Work" isn't a new piece, but I've gone back to it a few times, so I thought I'd share the link and a some thoughts on it.
The article interviews twelve successful, industry leaders on how they work and what they do to manage their workload. The common themes are that they all:
- tend to work 12+ hour days (and generally weekends)
- cut out the noise and distractions
- focus on what's important
- leverage their staff
- spend a large amount of their time emailing or calling people
That's a pretty good reflection of what Peter Drucker describes in the book, "The Effective Executive
I pulled a few quotes, but left off the names so you'll have to read the article to find out who said these:
On working hours:
"I get up about 4:30 A.M. and check out the markets."
"I get up between 5 and 5:30"
"I wake up somewhere between 5 and 6 A.M."
"My day starts around 9 A.M. and meetings finish up around 8 P.M. After that I stay in the office to do action items and e-mail. I can get by on four to six hours of sleep."
"I try to get home by 7:30 P.M."
"...head off to work about 5:45 A.M."
"I do marathon e-mail catch-up sessions, sometimes on a Saturday or Sunday. I'll just sit down and do e-mail for ten to 14 hours straight."
"I usually go home after lunch and then spend the rest of the afternoon and evening, except for dinner, up till about 11:30 p.m., working."
"If I don't do six hours of sleep I'm in bad shape, but I'm usually up by six."
"I typically don't sign off e-mail until midnight."
"My day usually ends in the office at about six o'clock, but then I go to two or three parties a night... Then, no matter when I get home at night -- and it's usually late -- I do at least an hour or two of e-mail."
"I'm asleep at 10. I'm up at 5:30 and try to work out four or five times a week."
On allocating time:
"For meetings on a single topic that aren't regular operational meetings, I'm very strict. The maximum is one hour and 30 minutes. Fifty percent of the time is for the presentation, 50 percent is for discussion."
"If I have a business dinner, people know that it should start at 6:30 and be over by 8:30."
On leveraging staff:
"I have two assistants now. I have an assistant from 7 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon, and then an assistant from 4 to midnight."
"I rely on staff to take care of things that I know they can."
On focus and resetting oneself:
"Every day at 8:30 A.M., I get up from my desk and walk to a health club across the street. I do yoga and work out for probably an hour and a half..."
"Some of my best ideas literally come from standing on my head doing yoga. I'm away from the office, away from the noise..."
"I don't have a cellphone, I don't have a Black-Berry."
"It is also important to take a distance from the problem. I do not bring my work home."
"I find that meditating for five, ten, or 15 minutes in a hotel room at night can be as good as a workout"
"I still work weekends, though not the killer hours I used to."