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Time is an irreplaceable resource.
Once spent, it’s gone; we can’t earn more, buy more, or magically produce more. For leaders, this truth is even more pressing.
We spend—roughly—80,000 hours in a career. Say ~10,000 hours as an individual contributor. ~20,000 hours down, and you’re in management. By the time you are twenty to thirty years into your career, you might be a vice president or knocking on the door of the C-suite. That’s another ~25,000 hours leading departments, shaping strategy, and driving key initiatives. By now, we’re setting priorities and managing the capacity of teams, departments, and functions.
Every hour is expensive.
The cost grows when you’re directing precious resources against that time. The job is simple: direct limited hours and resources to the highest impact priorities. Take one cliché and slam it against another. Time is of the essence, so we need to go after the low-hanging fruit. Or put another way: Time waits for no one, so keep your eye on the big rocks.
But how?
Whatever you’re building or selling, you and your time are spending time on four kinds of work:
#1. Core work.
#2. Critical work.
#3. Busy work.
#4. Secret work.
Core work makes the business run.
Core work maintains daily operations—"keeping the lights on"—and focuses on immediate needs, such as sustaining customer satisfaction or financial stability. It represents what you are paid to do: tasks that deliver daily value to the business, tailored to each function’s needs.
In sales, Core work is nurturing leads, closing deals, and maintaining customer relationships. Legal focuses on managing contracts, compliance, and daily legal risks. Customer service handles inquiries, resolves complaints, and ensures customer satisfaction. HR manages onboarding, payroll, and employee issues. Engineering maintains systems, fixes bugs, and keeps technical operations stable.
Core work delivers to set standards. It meets KPIs and delivers on OKRs.
How do you know if the work you are doing is core? Do this little test:
If your work serves a customer or supports someone who does—and it has an immediate (this quarter) impact—then it’s Core.
Critical work makes the business relevant.
Whether big or small, evolutionary or revolutionary, Critical work drives change, fuels growth, and prepares the business for the future. It could be a strategic initiative, innovation, transformation, new capability, or a new way of doing things—all to ensure long-term success.
Critical work in sales might involve entering new markets, developing strategic partnerships, or creating innovative sales strategies. Legal work could focus on significant compliance initiatives, navigating complex mergers, or managing high-stakes litigation. Customer service might involve developing new service models, enhancing digital support channels, or implementing new customer feedback systems. HR could spearhead organizational redesigns, leadership development programs, or culture transformation. Engineering work might focus on developing new products, enhancing system capabilities, or exploring emerging technologies.
Critical work lifts standards. It resets KPIs and delivers on OKRs.
Is your work Critical? Consider these questions:
If your work will create meaningful, lasting change and position the company for future success, it’s Critical.
Busy work doesn’t add value.
You want to minimize Busy work because it’s transactional, not strategic or tactical. These are the tasks that keep you occupied but don’t meaningfully contribute to business goals or customer outcomes. Busy work often hides in excessive meetings, redundant reporting, unnecessary emails, or low-priority administrative and bureaucratic tasks that eat away at time and energy.
Peculiarly, Busy work is often yesterday’s core work—tasks that once added value or were relevant to business success but now occupy time.
Are you occupied with Busy work? Ask yourself this:
If the answer to any of these is no, it’s likely Busy work. It’s a candidate for automation, delegation, or elimination.
You haven’t told anyone about your Secret work.
But deep down, you suspect that it will add value to the business once you figure it out. It will improve how things are done. And you genuinely enjoy it.
Secret work stems from the work people do—or want to do—that feels personally fulfilling and meaningful. Often, these are initiatives that individuals or, in large companies, small groups pursue because they believe it can ultimately add value, even if it hasn’t been openly shared or prioritized by others.
Though it may fly under the radar, Secret work is fueled by passion, curiosity, or a desire to make a difference. Too often, though, time gets in the way, pushing Secret work onto a wishlist, into a notebook, or leaving it buried in a spreadsheet—a to-do list of things that would be great if only there were enough time.
If you don’t know already, here are three questions—beyond the fact you haven’t told anyone about it—to help you identify Secret work:
If you answer yes to these questions, it’s likely Secret work—but remember, Secret work only fulfills its potential when you can share it.
I heard once, “We can’t get to the change because business-as-usual gets in the way.” That is a sign that work is out of balance—hours eaten away by Busywork. Critical work—the business transformation—pushes up against and is stifled by business as usual. No distinction is made between Core and Busywork. People are keeping on with their Secret work.
This is the formula for all failed change agendas.
Then, the not-quite-root cause of that failed change agenda is vilified. Change fatigue. Work-life balance and burnout. Culture eating strategy for breakfast. Lurking behind all these is a much more likely villain—work-work balance.
Work is out of balance when there is no distinction between Core, Critical, Busy, and Secret work.
Famously, some companies have tackled this. Google’s “20% time” formalized Secret work and instituted it as Critical work as Google sought to build innovation into its culture.
McKinsey, not surprisingly, has developed a strategic framework that describes work-work balance: The three horizons of growth. Each horizon segments organizational activities. Horizon one parallels Core work; running and optimizing core businesses. Horizon Two involves emerging opportunities that need nurturing (similar to Critical work), and Horizon Three is future-oriented ventures involving experimentation (comparable to Secret work).
While that framework is in the realm of strategists, Core/ Critical is something you can apply now to make space for your team.
Time is your most finite resource and every hour matters.
You have 80,000 or less. To find time, start by distinguishing the different types of work you and your team do: Core work that keeps the lights on, Critical work that drives change, Busy work that clutters your day, and Secret work that fuels personal passion.
To free up time, get clear on the objectives of the team. Make sure your OKRs cover Core and Critical work. Ask yourself if it’s really Core or Critical. Prioritize Core work that delivers immediate value while setting aside regular blocks for Critical projects that shape the future.
Bring Secret work into the light through innovation sprints, hackathons, or dedicated passion project hours. Minimize Busy work by streamlining processes, delegating tasks, or asking others to simplify what creates friction.
This is how you find time.
Gavin McMahon is a founder and Chief Content Officer for fassforward consulting group. He leads Learning Design and Product development across fassforward’s range of services. This crosses diverse topics, including Leadership, Culture, Decision-making, Information design, Storytelling, and Customer Experience. He is also a contributor to Forbes Business Council.
Eugene Yoon is a graphic designer and illustrator at fassforward. She is a crafter of Visual Logic. Eugene is multifaceted and works on various types of projects, including but not limited to product design, UX and web design, data visualization, print design, advertising, and presentation design.
