How to Get Things Done and Stay Healthy as a Leader

As leaders, there is ALWAYS more to do. Whether it is fighting the crisis of the moment, exploring new opportunities, managing strategic direction, holding staff accountable to KPIs, or simply staying on top of email and messages. The river of work never stops flowing.

As a junior leader, I often felt dashed against the rocks of that river – working all day, having dinner and some time with family, and then working again late into the night. I wanted to impress my supervisors and I wanted to do good work. As a senior leader, there are even more pressures to produce, to excel, be available, and be ready. So how can we ride that river of work effectively, without being pulled under or dashed against the rocks of overwork, distraction, and inefficiency?

Mindset

It starts with mindset. As leaders, there are a lot of things we CAN do and there are many things we are GOOD at doing. But there are things that ONLY the leader can do and things that you are GREAT at doing.

As coaching coach Keith Webb puts it, “not all work has the same payoff. You can complete a long checklist of tasks but not accomplish much toward your important objectives. Checked boxes do not equal impact. Busywork productivity and impact productivity are very different.”

What happens when we fail to stay focused on the things only we can do and in which we are particularly gifted? Ramifications often include:

• We fail to delegate, so we become the limiting factor holding things up while our staff miss opportunity to be stretched and grow
• We take too much weight on our own shoulders, adding stress and life imbalance
• We have no time to grow personally because we are so busy
• We struggle to see future opportunities and risks because we are too busy in the trenches…and our job as leaders is to look forward for new opportunities!

Practical Skills

How do we get done what is most important for us as leaders to get done, and build in margin to think forward strategically? Let me share five ways to leverage your calendar. None of these are rocket science, but most of us fail to intentionally build them into our lives and routines.

Target a regular workload of 80% of your full capacity, leaving 20% margin.

Most of us strive for maximum impact and run near 100%. We are under pressure. We may even take pride in how much we can accomplish and how hard we work. Going at 100% works until the unexpected strikes – we lose a key staffer, we have a personal crisis that takes our time and attention, external events hit our organization hard, a market opportunity opens unexpectedly. If we have no margin, we are instantly under water when the unexpected strikes. Our stress skyrockets and we have little extra to give. But something WILL give – regular responsibilities, mental health, family, missed opportunity, etc.

“But what do I do with the 20% when nothing unexpected happens?!”, you ask. That 20% margin gives space to explore opportunities, do personal development, get a mentor or coach, do extra check-in with staff, etc. – activities that add value, yet can more easily be set aside temporarily, if needed, when crisis hit. This better allows core responsibilities to remain uninterrupted or at least be less interrupted.

Calendar blocking

Calendar blocking is the simple exercise of putting non-event tasks on your calendar to reserve time for them. For example, blocking out time to complete a report, do research, plan for the quarter, email, etc. By giving your most important tasks a place on the calendar, it keeps others’ urgent needs from taking time away from what YOU must do – if your calendar is booked, you are not available.

Create rhythms and regularly scheduled events

For example, if you have a monthly 1:1, set it for the same day and time each month and make it a recurring calendar event. This saves the time and energy it takes to fit in a time for each individual meeting and allows you to build a rhythm. Perhaps you want to make Tu-We-Th your meeting-heavy days, leaving Monday and Friday for tasks and planning. Or you know that you are most efficient at individual tasks first thing in the morning, so you schedule meetings midday and afternoons.

Build "Think time” into your routine

The leader that is always reacting is not really leading. A leader must have bandwidth to analyze and reflect, be it on decisions to be made, how to develop your team, threats, or opportunities on the horizon. If your calendar and mental space are always full, “think time” is hard to get. So guard time for reflecting, learning, and giving your brain the space it needs to do its best work. It is part of your job.

Use your down time – rest

Finally, if we want to get things done and stay healthy as a leader, we must make time for rest. Americans in particular have been weak in this area for the past few decades. A 2025 report by Flexjobs.com found that a whopping 23% of Americans did not take any paid time off in the previous year! And nearly half did not use all of their PTO.

Our minds, bodies, and souls are finite and have limits. To be the best leader we can be, we need rest and change of pace regularly. Let yourself be recharged by stepping away from work weekly. Use comp time and vacation. Shut down your correspondence while off (vacation, weekend, etc) – the world will be ok! – and let your mind rest and recuperate. You may be amazed at how much more efficient and creative you are afterwards.

And if your team can’t function without you for a few days, you have failed as a leader by building dependence on you.

To get things done and stay healthy as leaders requires intentionality in mindset and in daily choices. Focus on what only you, the leader, can do and where you excel personally. Leverage your calendar religiously and build sustainable rhythms. And give yourself grace as you hone these skills – they don’t come overnight. You may benefit from the help of a coach. With intentionality, little-by-little you can find space to be your best and live out a healthy, more sustainable rhythm.

Reflection Questions

• What can only you as the leader do and what are you great at doing? Focus there.
• What are the current most important actions for you to accomplish to move forward on your most important objectives?
• What is one thing you are doing this week that is not moving you toward your most important objectives? How can you offload that?