Your Time Audit Playbook: It’s Time To Lead Series - Part 2

Time = Leadership Impact; Make Time to Create Time

Oct 16, 2025

If you’re a leader struggling with being strategic vs tactical, proactive vs reactive, then you need to do a Time Audit. Yes, I know, I know. I’m asking you to make time to “make time” for yourself. Yes, that’s what I’m asking. Invest in yourself.

You already have the data. Hint, most of it is already in your historical calendar. I also know that you already know how to plan… otherwise you wouldn’t be in this leadership position. But if I’m right, you haven’t planned your own time very effectively at all. I’m also betting you are trying to figure out how to be more influential and impactful as a leader?

I’ve coached CFOs who say all the right things about “being strategic”. Then I ask to see their calendar, and it’s wall-to-wall vendor calls, approval chains for $5,000 expenses, status/update meetings, etc. Sometimes I’ll see “blocked time”… that’s good… but then I ask what do you do with the blocked time and the answers aren’t crisp. It’s mostly “unplanned blocked time” 🤔.

So, it’s TIME. It’s time to lay out a specific playbook to get yourself out of not investing your time properly. It’s time to stop the easy, fall-back habits of “getting stuff done” each day but still mostly “running in place” and doing the same things over and over again, reactively, without a lot of compounding value of investing your time properly.

Step 1: The 2-Week Calendar X-Ray

Look at your last 14 days (or more) on your calendar and lay out every meeting, call, email block, and task in a simple spreadsheet.

Look for the export feature on your calendar. Can’t find it? Then simply hack it and plug and chug every event - these are the “Rows”.

You are now becoming conscious to all the ways you spend your time. Note that I say “spend” and not “invest”. We’ll get there, but currently you are only “spending” your time.

Now that you’ve shifted your time consciousness, you can start a new habit of adding a row to your new Time Audit spreadsheet as you realize your new goal is to track, prioritize, and maximize your time.

Now Add 5 columns

Column 1 = # of Hours

Column 2 = % of Time Spent (calculated)

Column 3 = High Leadership Impact (future oriented and strategic) - Is it high? Then simply mark this column. If not, leave it blank.

Column 4 = Medium Operational Impact (necessary but I think it requires me)

Column 5 = Low Impact (Transactional - I’m doing it because it’s faster and easier for me to do it vs delegating it to somebody else)

* For those more adept at spreadsheets - you can simply use 3 columns and create a “High; Medium; Low” Impact “Data Validation” list in the 3rd column.

Role Alignment

After filling in the columns for each of your calendar items, your calls, your emails sent, and the other “stuff” you are doing, now ask the powerful question:

“Is this work only what I can do?”

Mark as much as you can “Delegatable.”

PS. In today’s world as you make this mindshift, you can also begin delegating to a new Ai Agents!

Now ADD another column titled Energy Impact (+ / –). Weird I know, but stick with me… because how you feel about the things you do is directly proportional to your ability to create impact and influence.

Now mark each activity on your Time Audit spreadsheet as:

Energizing? - Love doing this… my strengths
Meh - I’m a machine and get it done
Hate It! - but nobody else can or will do it

Guess what? I’m betting that once you invest this Time Audit spreadsheet, the “Data” will be an “Aha Moment” for you. I’m betting that over 60% of your time is spent on “Delegatable/Low Impact/Meh/Hate It” items. It might even be over 75%.

Time to change.

You will never create Leadership Capacity while leaking away.

Step 2: The Stop / Start / Shift Framework

Once you’ve tagged your activities:

STOP: Eliminate low-value recurring tasks immediately. Just stop… see what breaks. Hint - not much will break.
DELEGATE: Move delegatable items to somebody. Yes, there is a person on your team who can do the task and actually would love the opportunity/challenge to do the thing. This could be your controller, FP&A lead, or Ops Director. Give them clear authority, not just tasks… per my last post.
Now ADD UP or SUM all the time in your Time Column you’ve just created for yourself. This is your “time opportunity”. You’ve taken an important step to creating the right amount of space and time to think strategically, to plan proactively into the future, and to work backwards from there to next week, this week, and TODAY.

Hint: Remember that “Blocked Calendar Time” you found on your calendar previously? It’s time to start filling in that time with things like:

Create my dept’s financial maturity roadmap
Structure my next team offsite
Do a Listening Tour (see my prior posts on this subject)

Step 3: Your Leadership Capacity Scorecard

Your goal is to get to:

70%+ of your week in “High / Leadership-Only” work
<10% in “Low” work
All “Delegatable” work reassigned with documented ownership and metrics

Start Your Time Audit Today

Leaders get in ruts fast. They mistake motion for movement just like everyone else. Then the crisis hits and you eventually drop everything and the new priority takes precedent.

Then the stress builds. It shows up as sleeping less, you become more critical, you listen less. You are mentally being compressed.

If you want to be the Leadership Architect you are meant to be, then start now and start with yourself.

Start your Time Audit with these Powerful Questions to yourself:

“What would actually happen if I didn’t do this task?”
“What if I made this task a P2 (priority #2) or P3 and did not deliver it for a few weeks?“
“Am I the one who really needs to do this thing?”

If the answers result in the fact that you really DO need to DO the thing then how do you do it faster and with higher quality?

Now ask a few more questions: