Time confetti: take back control

Why senior leaders are busier than ever but accomplish less — and a practical approach to reclaiming control of where your most valuable time goes.

Your time is being shredded. And you’re letting it happen.

Key takeaways

• If you’re still checking email first thing in the morning, you’re letting other people dictate your agenda before you’ve even started your own most important work.
• Leaders who build deliberate buffers into their schedules—like arriving early for travel or meetings—avoid last-minute stress and reclaim the headspace to think strategically instead of firefighting.
• Protect your focus like an asset: during deep work, put your phone out of sight and on silent, because every micro-distraction costs you far more than you realize at your level.

Here’s what nobody tells successful leaders: the habits that got you to the top are now working against you. You say yes to every meeting. You check email forty times a day. You keep your phone within arm’s reach because you might miss something. You won’t. What you’re missing is the deep work that actually moves the needle.

Researchers call it time confetti — the shredding of your attention into tiny, worthless fragments. A notification here. A quick reply there. A five-minute chat that turns into twenty. By the end of the day, you’ve been busy. You haven’t been productive. There’s a difference, and at your level, that difference is expensive.

I know this because I used to do it myself. I’d postpone the hard work. I’d tell myself I’d get to it ‘in a moment.’ That moment rarely came. Instead, I’d fill my day with low-priority tasks that felt urgent but weren’t. The result? Scrambling. Mediocre output. Lost confidence. Sound familiar?

So I changed. Not my calendar — my behaviour. I now do the hardest thing first, every day, while my energy is at its peak. Everything else waits. That single shift transformed my effectiveness, my clarity, and frankly, my peace of mind.

What i’ve learned the hard way

Stop reading your email first thing in the morning. Just stop. The moment you open your inbox, you’re working on someone else’s priorities. Review your day the night before. Know exactly what needs your best energy. Then protect that window like your reputation depends on it — because it does.

Build buffer into everything. I catch an earlier train to Schiphol. Not because I’m anxious — because delays are inevitable, and stress is a choice. When you stop running behind, you start thinking ahead. That’s where leaders belong.

Treat focus like a muscle. It atrophies if you don’t use it. During deep work, my phone is silent and out of sight. Not on vibrate. Not face-down on the desk. Gone. If something truly urgent happens — a family emergency — people will find you. Everything else can wait ninety minutes.

Now here’s what you can do

• Block 90–120 minutes of deep work every day. No email. No meetings. No exceptions. Treat it as non-negotiable. Your most important client is your own effectiveness.
• Control your inputs. Turn off every notification that isn’t critical. You decide when to check messages — not your phone, not your team, not the algorithm.
• Batch the shallow stuff. Email, admin, WhatsApp — cluster them into two or three set windows. Stop letting them leak into your thinking time.
• Start with one hour. That’s it. One hour of genuine, unbroken focus per day. Do it for two weeks. Watch what happens to your output.

Time management theory is easy. Execution is hard. But here’s what I’ve seen in thirty years of coaching leaders: the ones who take back their time take back their impact. Your habits as a leader set the tone for everyone around you. Manage yours well, and the ripple effect is enormous.

You don’t have a time problem. You have a choices problem. Start choosing differently.

The cost of letting your attention fragment isn’t just lost minutes—it’s lost leadership. Guard your focus ruthlessly, because what you choose to ignore is just as important as what you choose to achieve.

Over to you.