My fifteen-minute week

I run my companies in fifteen minutes a week.

This is not a productivity hack. It is a decision about what my work actually is.

Most executives I know spend their week aligning on things that were decided long ago. They call it leadership. It is administration with a better title.

I have separated thinking from doing completely.

Two hours of concentrated thinking a day. Fifteen minutes a week to pass on direction. The rest is execution, and I do not do it.

By the time I speak, the game has already been played out in my head.

What this requires:

• Decisions must be clear enough that they trigger no follow-up questions. Ambiguity costs more than a wrong decision.
• Execution must be delegable. To people or to agents — the difference has become smaller than most believe.
• If you can only run your company by being there constantly, you have not built a system. You are the system.
• More time does not produce better decisions. It hands the opportunity to someone faster.

The objection always comes: that only works because your companies are small.

No. It works because I no longer execute anything someone else can execute.

How much of your week do you spend on decisions that have already been made?