Founder & Scenarios

How do I track where my hours actually go so I know what to cut, without turning tracking into another chore?

A starting point

Audit for two weeks, not forever. Log your time in fifteen or thirty minute chunks for ten working days, then read it back and look for the leaks: reactive messaging, meetings that could be an email, rework, low-value busywork. You will almost certainly find that the work you think defines your day is a small slice of it. Fix the top two leaks, then stop tracking. The point is the diagnosis, not a permanent habit.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

3 resources 3 link-checked

Read

✍️ Essay
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Why we picked it Sparks cofounded Mattermark and Holloway, so this is a founder's actual playbook, not a coach's theory. He gives you the whole loop in three moves (Get it, Know it, Use it) and, crucially, a four-question filter to run on every logged activity: stop it if nothing breaks when you don't, delegate it if someone else could do it, reassign the prep, or make it shorter. That filter is what turns a two-week log into two fixed leaks.

Conducting a Time Audit

From Andy Sparks (Hoo Boy) by Andy Sparks 12 min read

  • Log with specifics ('reviewed product marketing draft'), not vague buckets ('marketing'), so the readback is honest enough to act on
  • Run every activity through stop / delegate / reassign / shorten before you decide to keep it
  • Also ask each report 'what do I do that wastes your time?', your calendar isn't the only place your hours leak
Open andysparks.co →
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it This is the cleanest lightweight recipe to just start: track in 30-minute blocks against six named categories (revenue, delivery, operations, admin, strategy, reactive) in a plain spreadsheet or notebook. The move that makes it work is writing down your guess for each category first, then reading the gap between what you assumed and what the log says. Most founders guess 20 to 30 percent on revenue work and find they are at 10 to 15, and that gap is the whole diagnosis.

The Founder's Time Audit: Where Your Hours Actually Go

From Founder's Best Friend by Founder's Best Friend 10 min read

  • Estimate your split across the six categories before you log, the gap versus reality is where the insight is
  • A spreadsheet or notebook beats an app: the simpler the method, the more likely you finish the two weeks
  • Don't try to behave better during the audit, the point is accurate data, not a clean-looking week
Open foundersbestfriend.com →
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Why we picked it Trenchard has watched a lot of founders run their calendars, and his core move is the one that makes buffer-based planning survive contact with reality: block one or two hours against your top three priorities when you are sharpest, then batch the reactive stuff (email, ad-hoc meetings) into defined windows instead of letting it bleed across the day. The practical lever for a founder who cannot escape fires is his insistence on saying no and ending every meeting with a decided outcome, so the reactive load that does hit you is compressed rather than open-ended. Read it as the how of protecting your 60%: guard the priority blocks, fence the firefighting into batches.

70% of Time Could Be Used Better: How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day

From First Round Review by Bill Trenchard 15 min read

  • Block your peak-alertness hours against your top three priorities first, before the day fills with other people's urgencies
  • Batch reactive work (email, ad-hoc requests) into set windows so it does not fragment your whole calendar
  • Saying no and forcing a decided outcome on every meeting compresses reactive load so it fits your buffer instead of overflowing it
Open review.firstround.com →

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