As an EA, a well-designed day extends far beyond your own desk – and strategic support starts with structure. Productivity expert Donna McGeorge shares four powerful strategies for redesigning your workday.
Your phone buzzes with another ‘urgent’ request while you’re halfway through preparing tomorrow’s board papers. Three meetings have overrun today, your inbox shows 47 unread messages and it’s only 2 pm.
If this sounds like your Tuesday (and Wednesday and Thursday), you’re not disorganised. You’re trapped in a system that was never designed with your best work in mind.
When you protect time, reduce noise and eliminate unnecessary friction, you’re not just improving your workflow. You’re also elevating the leader you support. Your ability to work with the rhythm of the day directly influences their capacity to lead.
Whether it’s shielding them from low-value interruptions or restructuring meetings to be sharper, your structured approach creates the clarity and headspace they need.
Work with your energy, not against it
The most powerful shift you can make is aligning your day with your natural energy rhythms.
Your first two hours are prime time for proactive, high-impact work. Use them for thinking, creating and planning – not triaging emails or sitting through status meetings.
Structure the rest around four energy zones:
- Proactive (first two hours): Deep work, decision-making, strategic tasks
- Reactive (next two): Meetings, collaboration, feedback
- Active (mid-afternoon): Admin, low-effort tasks, emails
- Preactive (late afternoon): Planning tomorrow, reflecting, closing loops
This isn’t a rigid formula. But tuning into these rhythms stops you burning energy where it’s wasted.
The power of subtraction
Reclaiming time starts not with better scheduling but with better subtracting. What outdated systems, unnecessary meetings and invisible expectations are you carrying without question?
Try this:
- Cancel or shorten meetings that don’t add value
- Let go of perfection in tasks that simply need completing
- Use a simple values filter: “Does this align with what matters right now?”
This creates space not just in your calendar, but in your mind.
Micro-edits with macro impact
Small changes deliver big results:
- Block your first two hours each day and protect them fiercely
- Create one meeting-free morning each week for focused work
- Replace 60-minute meetings with 25-minute sprints that are focused, fast, and respectful
- Do a monthly calendar audit. What can you remove, reduce, or reschedule?
You don’t need permission
The most powerful productivity tool isn’t an app or planner – it’s agency. The ability to choose, to say no, to redesign how you work with intention.
You don’t need a crisis to take control of your time. You just need one moment of clarity and the willingness to ask: “What can I let go of today that my future self will thank me for?”
Productivity means doing what matters when it matters – and having the courage to stop doing what doesn’t.
