Quick Tips for Managing Your Headspace As a Small Business CEO

The multitude of information and decisions small business owners deal with can be daunting and overwhelming

Feeling drained by the endless amount of decisions on your plate? For CEOs and founders, that struggle is real. Some people refer to this ‘decision fatigue’ and it can be a real productivity killer.

The sheer amount of inputs and information coming at CEOs and founders is remarkable. It can be daunting and overwhelming. There’s a constant flood of decisions to be made, yet the struggle is often finding the proper headspace to be able to fully think through these decisions and act strategically. Making matters even more challenging is that often only a few people in the company have full view into the entire gamut of actions and decisions the CEO has on their plate.

In my current role as Chief of Staff (an emerging role in tech that could lend itself to a whole other post!), I spend a majority of my time working in partnership with the CEO. Much of the focus is trying to compliment and, in some cases, be an extension of the CEO where needed. It’s about helping them scale themselves as the company scales. So, as part of this we often discuss and evaluate top priorities to free up the CEO to focus his time and energy on the most impactful areas — whether that be shaping the product vision and strategy, meeting with strategic customers, recruiting or connecting with potential investors.

With the constant prioritization (and reprioritization!) we try to reduce the volume of decisions weighing on the CEO. Let’s look at a few other ways to help manage decision fatigue…

Look at how your time is being spent and hire where you can

At early stage companies and small businesses, the CEO is often wearing many hats. They might be doing product designs, writing marketing copy, exploring potential partnerships and more. While that’s great, it’s not sustainable. If you’re in a position to scale your team, evaluate where you’re spending large chunks of time and if this is better served by bringing on someone to focus in this area.

If marketing activities for releases or product launches engulf your schedule, then consider hiring a product marketer. If you’re being inundated with interest from potential partners, but can’t action them, then it might be time for a business development resource. Sure, it might be tough to step back from these areas, but reducing the context switching and cycles lets you spend more time where you can be most effective.

Lean on your leadership team (aka delegate!)

This can’t be overlooked. As you scale and fill in areas where you no longer have the bandwidth, start to consider assembling your leadership (if not currently in place). Let’s face it, you can’t be the CPO, CMO and CEO in addition to CEO forever 🙂

A strong leadership team can do wonders in the way of reducing the sheer number of inputs you’re facing as CEO. It cuts down the number of employees directly reporting into you, and in turn, the number of 1-on-1 meetings on your schedule. And it lets you step back and play to your strengths while you empower other leaders to drive the day-to-day in their respective areas of the business.

Build a “meeting free” day into your weekly schedule

A fun lesson I’ve learned in my time as Chief of Staff thus far: CEOs get an absurd amount of email and meetings requests. Jumping from meeting to meeting leaves little headspace to devote to your business. One potential way to combat this is introducing a “meeting-free” day on your calendar where you can deeply focus on key initiatives or areas of the business. For example, our CEO is extremely involved in product strategy so often uses his “meeting free” days to spend time with our product and design teams. Figure out a day that works best for you and work with your EA to start building this into your schedule.

You won’t regret it!

Being a CEO of an early-stage company or growing small business is no short order. You’re constantly being pulled in seemingly a thousand different directions and being asked for decisions at every turn. And while there’s no silver bullet, taking steps to refocus some of your energy and reduce the growing list of decisions can go a long way in improving your day-to-day life. Not to mention free you up to tackle the work you feel will have the biggest impact for your company!

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