Tricks That Help CEOs At Work From doing nothing to playing sports to finding solace in music, CEOs share their passion which help them in being productive at work
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Is it a quick nap? Or just playing a sport? What is the simplest; perhaps a crazy hack…a leader uses to be productive? The list goes on from doing nothing to playing engaging sports!
One might often wonder, what do these top bosses do to keep going? Are they not tired or bored of their stressful working hours? The answer is they use productivity hacks! "Every once in a while, I binge on Netflix! Books are my go to place, although I do not read them cover to cover as I used to earlier. I flip through the page in bits and pieces. Audiobooks are another option I look up to," said Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO, Salesforce, India.
These days she is practicing doing nothing, which is difficult for her as she calls herself 'fidgety'. "In my free time, you either see me playing word games or Sudoku; so I am trying to hold myself back and practice doing nothing!" she quipped.
For Jaya Jagadish, head, AMD India, work isn't the reason for her stress. However, she is mindful of taking breaks. "Everybody comes under pressure; I take breaks once in a while to reset myself. While on an off day I do not think of engineering or AMD at all!" Jaya loves music and it's like a therapy to her, "I sing, I am trained in classical music, it helps in breaking the daily monotony and makes me productive."
Well for some, competition is the key to sanity! "I believe in healthy competition wherein there is a win for both parties," said Savi Soin, Qualcomm India head. For 30 years he had been playing racket sports, "I still indulge in a game of Badminton, every once in a while! Sports is a must for me." He also finds his refuge in good food!
We all get the same number of hours in a week, but for CEOs the demand from their time is greater. A study published in Harvard Business Review revealed: On average, the leaders worked 9.7 hours per weekday, which totals just 48.5 hours per workweek. They also worked 79 percent of weekend days at an average of 3.9 hours daily, and 70 percent of vacation days with an average of 2.4 hours on those days. Altogether, the study found that CEOs worked an average of 62.5 hours a week.
