How High-Performing Leaders Protect Their Time and Energy

In the mid-1990s, business researcher Jim Collins and his team set out to answer a seemingly simple question: Can a good company become a great company, and if so, how?

They studied decades of performance data and looked for patterns among companies that didn’t just grow but endured. And what they found surprised a lot of leaders.

The companies that lasted weren’t led by people who worked the longest hours or said yes to everything. They were led by people who were deeply disciplined—especially about what they wouldn’t do. That insight became a defining theme of Good to Great, Jim Collins’ bestselling leadership classic. His team called everything leaders wouldn’t do the “stop-doing” list, and it was just as important as the to-do list.

What does that have to do with you? Everything—if you’re on a mission to be a high-performing leader who builds a business that lasts.

Being available 24/7 can feel like faithfulness. But energy runs thin and burnout creeps in when you never turn off. And being open to every opportunity might feel strategic until it crowds out clarity and the rewards of focused momentum over time.

So, what does it look like to protect your time and energy on purpose?

Let’s unpack three principles that fuel sustainable productivity. Then we’ll zoom out and hear how some of the most respected voices in leadership reinforce the same ideas. Many of these leaders have also graced the stage at an EntreLeadership^® event.

3 Principles to Fuel Your Productivity

If working 60-plus hours a week hasn’t delivered the results you hoped for, the solution isn’t more effort. It’s better leadership. In other words, you need to be a leader who does less of the wrong things so there’s space to move the right things forward. These three principles aren’t just productivity tips for work. They’re leadership principles that protect your capacity, margin and focus to lead at a high level. Each one is reinforced by a leadership mindset—how high-performing leaders think and decide in real time.

1. Energy is essential. Protect it like you would your revenue.

You can’t manage your leadership responsibilities if you don’t manage your energy. Sleep, recreation and margin aren’t rewards for finishing the work. They’re the fuel that makes good leadership possible in the first place. When that fuel runs low, even the most sophisticated planner or productivity app can’t compensate.

We get it. High-performing leaders are hardwired to go one more round. You’ve trained yourself to run hard, stay late, and carry more than your share. But even racehorses are paced—and pulled off the track before they break down.

When your energy is depleted, your entire organization feels it. Communication suffers, decisions stall and small problems feel heavier than they should.

The Leadership Mindset

The better question isn’t “How do I get more done?” It’s “What am I holding on to that no longer requires my direct input?”

That question leads straight to delegation, not as an efficiency hack, but as a leadership responsibility. When you hold on to work just because you’ve always done it or because you don’t trust your team to do it right, you drain your energy, limit your team’s growth, and quietly cap your growth potential.

Protecting your energy isn’t selfish. It’s how you develop and grow as a leader.

2. Intentional priorities protect your calendar.

Here’s a sobering truth: Most of what fills our days feels urgent, but very little of it is actually important. As Jim Collins’ research points out, greatness doesn’t come from doing more things. It comes from focusing on the few things that truly matter—whether that’s landing the right hire, protecting time to think, or getting home in time for family dinner.

In EntreLeadership, we call that protecting your A1 priority (as well as A2 and A3). These are the handful of activities only you can do to drive the mission forward each day. That includes important work that isn’t urgent but prevents future fires. Everything else should be delegated, delayed or eliminated. That’s critical to successful time management.

The Leadership Mindset

Before the week starts, ask yourself:

• What deserves my best energy?
• What must happen no matter what?
• What can wait or be handed off?

If something doesn’t move the mission forward, it’s not just optional, it’s a distraction.

Then, throughout the week, use this simple decision filter:

• Is this something I need to do as the leader?
• Do I need to do it now or can it wait, in light of my company mission and A1?

Those two questions will guard your time, protect your priorities, and help you lead with focus instead of reacting all day.

3. Clarity brings focus and guards against overwork.

Think back to the last time you left work completely drained. Chances are it wasn’t just about the volume of work but the confusion around it. Who’s doing what? When is it due? And what’s the goal?

When roles are fuzzy and expectations are unclear, leaders become the default problem-solvers. You jump in to make the decision, redo the project, or push things across the finish line. That constant reaction is exhausting, and it wrecks focus.

The Leadership Mindset

High-performing leaders protect their energy by getting clear on what work actually belongs to them and what doesn’t. That clarity shows up as:

• Clear roles: Everyone knows what they do.
• Clear ownership: Everyone knows who’s responsible.
• Clear expectations: Everyone knows what winning looks like.

When decisions move out of your head and into shared clarity, you can stop reacting all day and start leading with confidence. The work doesn’t disappear, but now it’s in the right hands. And when people truly own their work, leaders get their energy and time back.

With these three principles in place, you’re not just doing less. You’re doing the right work with the right boundaries at the right time.

Productivity Principles Show Up Everywhere Great Leadership Is Practiced

The idea that leaders must protect their time and energy isn’t unique to EntreLeadership. It shows up across industries, generations and decades of leadership research.

From business icons to behavioral scientists to championship coaches, the most respected voices in leadership echo the same message: Intentional leadership starts with protecting what fuels you.

Here’s how they’ve said it:

“If doing business was easy, everybody would do it. This is hard. You’ve got to protect your time, guard your calendar, and stop being the chief everything officer.” — Dave Ramsey, Founder and CEO of Ramsey Solutions

“It’s not about whether or not you make a mistake. It’s about whether or not you fall forward and that you maintain the forward momentum.” — Carla Harris, Wall Street Investment Banker

“Research backs solitude’s healthy properties. It’s been shown to improve productivity, creativity, empathy, and happiness.” — Michael Easter, Bestselling Author of The Comfort Crisis

“It’s impossible to lead yourself unless you have a destination in mind. . . . Establish a vision of high intent.” — Horst Schulze, Founder and Former President and COO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company

“When we don’t believe we are enough as we are, attention starts looking like love, external significance starts looking like success, and validation starts looking like worthiness.” — Jamie Kern Lima, First Female Chief Executive Officer of a L'Oréal Brand

“Happiness isn’t found in some finite checklist of goals that we can diligently complete and then coast. It’s how we live our lives in the process.” — Arthur Brooks, Harvard Professor and Happiness Expert

“Intention means every decision, from the most obviously significant to the seemingly mundane, matters.” — Will Guidara, Bestselling Author and Restaurateur

“It’s important to be willing to make mistakes. The worst thing that can happen is you become memorable.” — Sara Blakely, Founder of Spanx

“Make no mistake: time is our most precious resource. Period. We need to honor it.” — Dr. John Delony, Ramsey Personality and Mental Health Expert

“Discipline is doing what you are supposed to do in the best possible manner at the time you are supposed to do it.” — Mike Krzyzewski, Naismith Hall of Fame Basketball Coach and Former Head Basketball Coach at Duke University

“You have to help people have a sense of where they’re going. People like to know what is expected of them. Not just what is expected of them today. What’s expected of them on the pathway to getting where we all want to go.” — Condoleezza Rice, Former U.S. Secretary of State

“Boundaries define us. They define what is me and what is not me. . . . Knowing what I am to own and take responsibility for gives me freedom.” — Dr. Henry Cloud, Psychologist and Bestselling Author

Different leaders, different disciplines, same conclusion: Sustainable success requires leaders who are disciplined about where their time and energy go—and just as disciplined about where they don’t.

Start Small, Lead Better

You don’t need a full overhaul of your weekly rhythms to start protecting your time and energy. You just need a few intentional shifts.

Small leadership decisions compound quickly. This week, do three things:

1. Identify one responsibility you’re holding that no longer requires your direct input and delegate it.
2. Block time on your calendar for one important task that supports the mission but usually gets pushed aside.
3. Clarify ownership on one recurring issue that keeps landing back on your desk.