I always believe that the key responsibility of a leader is long term strategy or vision and guidance. In that sense, the article covers the key actions that a leader should do to be able to juggle multiple and important tasks. First is a dedicated time for for long term strategic thinking and planning along with your team members. Second is to provide guidance or overseeing the tasks done to manage urgent (or fire fighting) actions, which also requires that you trust your own team to be able to manage the tasks properly and providing guidance only as needed. In both instances, delegation is critical.

Multitasking is a myth. Nearly everyone can’t actually do it. Multitasking is doing two or more things at once less effectively. If you want to do deep thinking work, carve the actual meaningful time to do it.

Strategic thinking is crucial as it sets the vision and direction, eventually streamlining operations and reducing the daily burden through smarter processes and focused goals. Schedule dedicated time for strategic planning, treating it as non-negotiable. Delegate operational tasks to trusted team members or automate routine processes to create space for higher-level planning. Use tools like dashboards or KPIs to gain real-time insights into operations, ensuring your decisions are data-driven. Regularly step back to review progress and adjust strategies to align with long-term objectives.

Strategic thinking is about forward-backward thinking. Spend time defining elevated purpose and the high level goals will appear. Then keep working backwards towards the present. That’s how you connect future to present on an exponential curve. Learn to learn fast, not fail fast. Adapt.

Most difficult is to allocate time for strategic thinking 😁. 👉Dedicate a block in your agenda for strategic thinking. Schedule this on the same weekday and same time every time whether it is once a week or once per two weeks or once a month. In this way your mind and body get used to this schedule. And it becomes clear for others that you are not available for anything else at that moment of the week. Make sure you look forward to it and you protect it. 👉Also find out what your favorite place is to do this. Do you want to sit or stand? Do you prefer a whiteboard, pen and paper or electronic notebook? And even think of your favorite drink to go with it 😁 👉 Regularly evaluate what works best for you

It's crucially important to understand stakeholders' priorities through cadenced listening tours. For me, the key to juggling is to be very self-aware as to what my intuition is telling me needs to be addressed. I look at the "double diamond" from the design literature for guidance. Am I feeling: - strategic/divergent? (Brainstorming) - strategic/convergent? (Strategic planning) - tactical/divergent? (Logistic options) - tactical/convergent? (Project planning) It's not easy and it's helpful to have coaches or even therapists, but -- after many years -- I am confident in this method of trusting and listening to my intuition to keep a running synthesis.

Agreed, multitasking is a myth! You must schedule time in advance - like block out time - to handle those things that need to be done. I reserve morning and afternoon slots specifically so I have built in time to address what I must. The Eisenhower Matrix also plays a part! Do it, delegate it, put it in a todo, or discard it.