Twenty years ago, it took me about 40 hours on average to write an article. It was painful and time-consuming, so I rarely did it.

Today, I produce more content in a week than I did in four months, while taking on more client work. And, most importantly, working fewer total hours.

I didn’t learn to grind harder. I doubt I got any smarter. I’m not taking nootropics.

I did learn a little about how to write and produce content more quickly. But primarily, I learned the value of working on the right things at the right time.

Accomplishing more is not about more effort

Leaders constantly feel like they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. Nearly all of my advisory clients begin that way. Many feel cautious about hiring me because they don’t know if they’ll “have time.”

There is no doubt about their work ethic. But working hard isn’t enough.

As busy as they genuinely are, they have exactly as much time as my long-time clients, who are (now) building companies 10x as large. And have more discretionary time for family and other interests.

They learned that 10X the effort ≠ 10X the results.

What most leaders ignore

Research on elite performers, particularly the work of psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, suggests humans can sustain about four hours per day of truly demanding cognitive work. The best performers tend to do this work in blocks of 60–90 minutes.

Research into our biology reinforces this. During the day, our brains move in roughly 90-minute cycles of high focus followed by a trough. These are often called active-rest cycles or Ultradian rhythms.

In Alaska, salmon fishing happens when the salmon show up. We call these “runs.” You either catch the run – and catch fish – or you don’t. So, if you like fishing for salmon, you stop everything to catch a run when it is there.

These “peak” active times are like cognitive runs, when our brains more easily create, solve problems, and absorb complex information.

If you waste these times on emails, admin, or allowing interruptions, they are gone. You can’t decide when they’ll be.

This means that over the course of a very disciplined workday, most people have two genuinely deep work windows available to them. Some people have three.

Miss them or waste them, and you don’t get them back.

Like salmon runs, you can’t choose when they’ll happen. Unlike salmon runs, you can plan for when your peak “active” periods usually occur. Most people already know when theirs is.

The trick is to protect that time.

What will produce 10X results….

Focus on the right thing at the right time.

Leaders who consistently produce disproportionate results do three things:

1. Be Clear About Priorities

They become and stay crystal clear about their priorities. And within those priorities, they decide which one matters most today.

If you aren’t clear about your priorities, you stop leading. Leaders who aren’t clear about their priorities tend to use urgency as a proxy for importance.

Anything demanding or exciting gets attention.

That’s why so many leaders are perpetually firefighting and never building. It’s also why so many entrepreneurs are always starting but rarely finishing.

2. Accept the Limit

High performers accept that:

a. They have limited productive energy each day.
b. That productive energy shows up at certain times.

Most leaders need focused time for decision-making, strategy, problem-solving, and navigating others’ emotions. That is some of the most important work they do.

It is also the most cognitively demanding.

They recognize that they only have so much ‘deep thinking’ in them. They make sure they use that energy on the right thing. Most people have one consistently strongest deep-thinking window each day.

Use it or lose it.

3. Dedicate and Protect

High performers ruthlessly protect their best “deep work” window and dedicate it to their highest strategic priority.

Everything else fits around it, especially the one best deep-thinking window.

So when “life happens,” it happens around their priorities. It doesn’t displace them.

Unfortunately, many leaders waste their most productive window on email, meetings that can wait, or other administrative tasks.

But leaders who achieve 10X the strategic outcomes almost always match their highest-value work to their deepest cognitive window—and they protect it.

What do you need to focus on and when?

You probably already know when you are most productive. Now you need to protect it aggressively.

Many leaders act helplessly about this, “People keep calling!” (Turn your phone off.) “People keep knocking on the door” (Tell them not to interrupt you during this time.)

For most owners and executives, this is not complicated. You control your calendar. (If you don’t, who is actually in charge?)

If you are in mid or line management, it might require more communication and negotiation. But you can often still get the time you need.

The real question is not whether you have enough time. It’s about using your best hours for your most important work.

What does your calendar say about your real priorities?

What needs to change tomorrow morning?

Take good care,

Christian