8 Tasks Successful CEOs Do Before Work!

When I was working in a large company, a question often poped-up here and there, was how it was possible to perform all the duties, company is placed upon us. The time never seemed enough, while the tasks we have to compete during a working day usually were multiplied, in a, seemingly, random manner!

Today's demands, and the current economic crisis, create a lot more problems to CEOs, because is not easy for modern CEOs to remain efficient all the time! Considering the complexity of today's business interaction, it is essential for the CEO of a company to stay "afloat" and on top of all the things related to the course of his/hers company. They need to provide clear and concise directions to help others (associates, collaborators, employees, clients, etc) to achieve their goals!

It is not always easy for a CEO to achieve something like that, since the pressing demands of the day-to-day business operations create a huge workload to business and corporate CEOs. The business day, usually, is the not the field for creative and innovative business development, and most CEOs, know it very well!

The most successful CEOs, usually start their work a lot before they arrive in office (some, even and the night before)! Usually they do not work harder; they just work smarter! In order to be efficient and ready for the working day, they:

1. Remove clutter (mental and physical). Usually the most successful CEOs start their day with a routine that would help them remove the clutter may have accumulate by previous actions. This includes both the mental and physical level. Most they practice meditation, Bible reading, praying, reading in general, a physical activity, or any other activity may help them to focus on the important things and areas of their life! On the physical level they eliminate, any physical clutter may exist, by clearing their desk, organizing papers and books may have left out, charging devices may need during the day (mobile phones, PDAs or Laptops, etc), organize, remove or delete obsolete e-mails, etc. When these two activities combined together, they provide a major energy boost to everyone life and leave him/her room to focus on the important stuff of his/hers life. The clutter removal activity (both of them actually!), does not have to be very lengthy in time. It just have to be consistent and practiced daily!
2. Early check mails and e-mails. Most successful CEOs usually check their e-mails and physical mails before start their working day. Starting from home the checking of the mails, control a major part of their input, and eliminating a major part of later (or tomorrow's) clutter. The habitual practice of the early checking your mailbox in conjunction with time management techniques as Getting Things Done (GTD) and Covey's approach, deletion of the unimportant ones and delegation of some tasks, prevents them from later reactive type activities, render them pro-active and leave them time for more creative tasks.
3. Check his schedule and agendas. Again, most successful CEOs, habitually check early their calendar and their agendas for the working day to be followed. This activity, permit them to be ready for the forthcoming meetings, presentations or any other event they must attend and direct their thought on how to exploit it better.
4. Check social media and develop new connections. Is not always good for a CEO to spend all his time in the social media. A CEO should be, among other things, a raw model for the acceptable or non-acceptable behaviors in a company, and his/hers overly involvement in social media networks might be misunderstood! Moreover might foster the development of negative trends within a company striving to be competitive in a difficult market. For this reason a CEO should be limit if not eradicate his/her social media time during the company's working time by practicing this activity early in the morning! Main focus of a CEO on the social media field is to develop new connections, affiliation and links of his company in the social media area and when he/she has pinpoint the social ares he/she wants his/her company to move and he/she has mapped the strategies to employ, he/she can always delegate the tasks to the appropriate group in the company!
5. Set his priorities and focused of the important things. One of the most important pre-work functions of a successful CEO to set his/her day priorities. A CEO should focus on the important things related to the affairs of his/her company leaving the other tasks to more suitable people, for each task. Part of the procedure to set his/her priorities is to think about who in his company is more suitable for a particular task and how an activity should be performed more efficiently! His/her mindset should be more on providing more autonomy to his personnel by providing clear and consisted directions and advice and reserve for him/her self limited (if no none) involvement in the specif task.
6. Delegate tasks. Of course, a major part, of the work before the "working hours" of a CEO is the answer to the question:"who can do this, best?". A successful CEO should be able to delegate to the appropriate person the appropriate tasks while do not violate their time or their working roles. In order to do that, does not delegate anything, BEFORE go to his office, because he knows that business operations are volatile and the demands change during the working day. Instead he prefers to have working on the issues of what task can be done by who and after his/her arrival in the office to do a small 1:1 meeting with the prospect delegee to check if the delegation of that task is feasible! In such a way, he/she not only respects his/her colleagues but he/she also find the best ways and times for the performance of a task by working pro-actively.
7. Take care their health and fitness. Modern working pace, place a huge physical, emotional and mental load on the shoulders of executives and CEOs. It is imperative, for today, high volume CEOs to safeguard their health, and make what's possible for maintain and enhance their energy, on all levels. Exercise is the answer for the modern CEOs in order to maintain a good mental and physical health and enhance their stamina across all the task they should cope with! Exercise coupled with the spiritual discipline (as prayer, meditation, reading, etc) can make miracles in the long run not only for his/her physical level but for his/her personal development and emotional balance.
8. Invest On Yourself. The today demands on our workforce are very large and are even larger for the CEOs in the modern companies. To be a CEO today is not the same as it used to be! In order CEOs to remain in their place and safely direct their company across the modern economic "dire straits" it is of essence to invest in themselves. It is important to find the time for reading, listen to podcasting, attend conference, seminars and webminars and be active and present in the area of their expertise. A modern CEO, should not always know all the answers, but he/she certainly should know how to find them, when it is needed. For this reason the "investment on yourself" is very imperative, because it helps modern CEOs to be on top of the things. It is also important the self training and education of the CEOs to be managed in margins outside the working hours!

These are only a few ways, that can help CEOs in today's difficult working conditions! Do you have some more? Please comment.