How to Conduct a 2 Week CEO Time Study (Step-by-Step)
Ecomm Breakthrough · Jun 25, 2026 · 31:10
Ecomm Breakthrough · Jun 25, 2026 · 31:10
Listen in the Podli app 🎧
Follow your favourite podcasts, listen offline and in the car with CarPlay and Android Auto, and always pick up where you left off. Free to try.
In this episode of the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast, host Josh Hadley shares a powerful productivity strategy: conducting a two-week time study. Josh explains how tracking time reveals inefficiencies and misplaced priorities that limit business growth. He introduces a four-bucket framework—Delete, Delegate, Design, and Double Down—to help entrepreneurs categorize their activities and focus on high-leverage work. Josh emphasizes that a CEO's role must continuously evolve through revenue milestones, and recommends tools like the Timing app and ChatGPT to analyze time data and redesign job responsibilities for maximum impact.
Bullet Points:
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introduction to the Two-Week Time Study
Your calendar reveals your business's future growth. A time study shows where your time is actually being consumed.
00:01:18 The Importance of a Time Study
A founder's time becomes the ceiling for business growth. This study helps align your actions with your business goals.
00:02:40 Evolving as a CEO at Different Revenue Milestones
The CEO's role must change as the business scales from $1 million to $5 million, $10 million, and beyond.
00:04:22 Common Misconceptions About Time Usage
Founders often think they're focused on growth but are stuck in administrative tasks, revealing a disconnect in priorities.
00:06:08 Why the Study Must Be Two Weeks Long
Two weeks is the minimum time to get an accurate picture of your normal habits, beyond a single focused week.
00:07:53 The Brutal Question for CEOs
Ask if the CEO you want to become should be doing your current tasks, emphasizing the need for personal evolution.
00:09:23 The Four Buckets for Categorizing Your Time
After the study, categorize all tasks into four buckets: delete, delegate, redesign, or double down on high-leverage activities.
00:11:10 Common Findings from a Time Study
CEOs often find they spend too much time checking instead of leading and get derailed by personal tasks mid-day.
00:14:44 The Real Outcome: Redesigning Your Job
The goal is to redesign your job description every 90-180 days, focusing on growth levers to earn promotions.
00:16:17 How to Conduct the Time Study
Use the Timing app to track everything from sunup to sundown, including personal time, to get a complete picture.
00:18:58 Categorizing Your Tasks
Create key themes or categories for your activities, such as "CEO strategic work," "hiring," and "personal tasks."
00:21:04 Analyzing the Results
The app shows where your hours went, revealing high-time categories like hiring, which can inform who to hire next.
00:25:05 Using ChatGPT for Deeper Analysis
Export your time data and use a specific ChatGPT prompt to analyze it using the four-bucket framework for insights.
00:26:36 Example ChatGPT Output
ChatGPT can identify the best and worst uses of your time, highlighting where to apply your judgment for maximum leverage.
00:29:49 Conclusion and Final Takeaways
Your calendar is your strategy. Run the study regularly, apply the four buckets, and constantly evolve your role as a leader.
Links and Mentions:
Tools and Apps
"Timing App": "00:16:50"
Key Concepts and Frameworks
"Two Week Time Study": "00:02:02"
Recommendations
"ChatGPT": "00:25:05"
Additional Notes
"QR Code for Resources": "00:29:49"
Transcript:
Josh Hadley 00:00:00 Show me two weeks of your calendar, and I'm going to be able to confidently tell you whether you're going to be growing or staying stuck in your business over the next 12 months. Welcome to the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast. I'm Josh Hadley. I've scaled my own e-commerce brand from 0 to 8 figures, and I'm actively building towards nine figures in sales. This podcast is where I document that journey and share the systems, the strategies, and the lessons learned in real time so that you can learn what actually matters and scale your own business. Most founders think that they know exactly where their time is going. However, when you conduct a two week time study, 90% of entrepreneurs are blown away with where their time is actually being consumed in the business. And oftentimes it's not in the places you want your time being consumed in the business. Most of the time, you're stuck in the thick of thin things. That's not providing a high ROI in the business. My name is Josh Hadley. First and foremost, I'm a man of faith.
Josh Hadley 00:00:56 I'm a husband to a beautiful wife and the father of four children. I've been selling in the e-commerce space for over a decade, selling multi-million on sales channels such as Amazon, TikTok, Shop and Shopify, and I am also the host of the number one business strategy podcast for ecommerce entrepreneurs. That's E-com breakthrough. Today, I'm going to be sharing with you the details about this two week time study, which i
