Andy Grove's Daily Routine

Andy Grove was Intel's third employee and ran it as CEO through its rise in the 1980s and 1990s. He also wrote down one of his own working days, hour by hour, so other managers could see where the time went.

In High Output Management (1983), the day runs from 8:00 AM to 6:15 PM. It opens with a manager who has resigned and half an hour of yesterday's mail, then a 3-hour executive staff meeting and lunch in the cafeteria. After 1:00 PM come an hour on a quality problem, 2 hours lecturing at employee orientation, returned calls and a last stretch of mail and reports. He worked from a cubicle, kept office hours instead of taking interruptions, and anyone arriving after 8:00 AM went on the "late list".

Run it for a week if your calendar feels full but you can't say what it's for. You come out with a clear picture of where your hours go, and a manager's day with its meetings grouped and its interruptions fenced off. Sleep and the evening are our estimates, and his times are rounded to the half hour.