62.5 hours per week worked by the average CEO (HBR study of 27 CEOs)
72 percent of CEO time in meetings (HBR)
6 percent of CEO time available for solo strategic thinking
Key Takeaways
- Harvard Business Review tracked 27 CEOs over a combined 60,000 hours and found they averaged 62.5 hours per week, with meetings consuming 72 percent of that time.
- Administrative tasks, defined as scheduling, email triage, travel booking, and file management, consumed about 16 percent of CEO time in the same study.
- McKinsey research found senior executives spend roughly 23 percent of their time in meetings, with an additional 13 percent on email.
- Only about 6 percent of CEO time is spent on solo strategic thinking, a category consistently ranked as the highest-leverage activity by the executives themselves.
Harvard Business Review researchers Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria spent a decade tracking how 27 CEOs at major companies actually spend their time, accumulating over 60,000 hours of diary data. The result is the most rigorous dataset on executive time use available: CEOs average 62.5 hours per week, with a full 72 percent of that time consumed by meetings. That figure alone reframes the productivity challenge facing executives, because most calendar optimization advice addresses the wrong lever.
The more striking finding is at the other end of the spectrum. Only 6 percent of CEO time, or roughly 3.75 hours per week, goes to solo strategic thinking: uninterrupted planning, reading, analysis, and decision-making that executives themselves rate as their highest-leverage activity. The gap between what executives should be doing and what their calendars actually contain is the business case for executive assistance in a single number.
Executive Time Use Statistics 2026
The HBR CEO time study provides the most cited breakdown of where leader time goes. The categories below represent the averages across the 27-CEO panel. Individual variation exists, but the broad pattern holds across company size and industry: meetings dominate, administration is surprisingly large, and strategic thinking is consistently crowded out.
| Time Category | Share of CEO Week | Hours per Week (at 62.5) | Delegatable Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meetings (all types) | 72 percent | 45 hours | 20 to 30 percent |
| Administrative tasks | 16 percent | 10 hours | 80 to 100 percent |
| Solo strategic thinking | 6 percent | 3.75 hours | None |
| Informal interactions | 4 percent | 2.5 hours | None |
| Other (travel, personal) | 2 percent | 1.25 hours | Partially |
McKinsey research on senior executive time allocation adds complementary data. McKinsey finds that senior executives spend approximately 23 percent of their time in meetings and an additional 13 percent on email, for a combined 36 percent on those two categories alone. The difference from the HBR findings reflects methodology and seniority level, but both studies confirm the same basic pattern: communication and coordination dominate, leaving little room for focused work.
Meeting Time Breakdown
Within the 72 percent of CEO time in meetings, not all meetings are equal in value. The HBR data breaks meeting time into categories that reveal significant delegation opportunity. One-on-one meetings with direct reports represent the highest-rated category for value by the CEOs themselves. Large group meetings and external meetings with customers, partners, and investors are also rated highly. Scheduled reviews, status updates, and routine coordination meetings are consistently rated low-value by the same executives.
| Meeting Type | Share of Meeting Time | CEO Value Rating | Delegatable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-on-ones with direct reports | 25 to 30 percent | High | Not typically |
| Customer and partner meetings | 20 to 25 percent | High | No |
| Strategy and planning sessions | 15 to 20 percent | Very high | No |
| Status updates and reviews | 20 to 25 percent | Low | Mostly |
| Scheduling and coordination | 5 to 10 percent | Very low | Fully |
The scheduling and coordination category is entirely delegatable, and status update attendance is partially delegatable through summary-based briefings or pre-reads. A skilled executive assistant can eliminate scheduling overhead almost entirely and reduce low-value meeting attendance by 50 to 70 percent, freeing 6 to 10 hours per week across those two categories.
Administrative Time: The Most Underestimated Drain
The 16 percent of CEO time classified as administrative in the HBR study translates to roughly 10 hours per week or over 500 hours per year. Administrative tasks in the study definition include scheduling, travel booking, expense reporting, document filing, and inbox management for routine correspondence. Every one of those task types can be handled by a trained executive assistant operating with proper access and a briefed set of protocols.
| Admin Task Type | Estimated Weekly Time | Delegatability Score |
|---|---|---|
| Inbox triage and routing | 3 to 5 hours | Very high |
| Calendar scheduling and rescheduling | 2 to 4 hours | Very high |
| Travel booking and logistics | 1 to 2 hours | Very high |
| Expense reporting | 0.5 to 1 hour | Very high |
| Document filing and organization | 0.5 to 1 hour | High |
| Routine vendor and service communications | 0.5 to 1 hour | High |
Executives who have delegated their entire administrative stack to a trained assistant consistently report recapturing 8 to 12 net hours per week, accounting for briefing and review time. Over the course of a year, that represents 400 to 600 hours of founder time redirected toward high-leverage work.
The Strategic Thinking Gap
The 6 percent solo strategic thinking figure is the most important data point in the HBR study for making the case for executive assistance. When CEOs are asked what activity they wish they had more time for, strategic thinking tops the list by a wide margin. Yet their calendars consistently allocate less than one hour per day to it.
Research on decision quality and cognitive load finds that executive decision quality degrades measurably when leaders are in meeting-and-email mode for more than six consecutive hours without a sustained break. The structure of most executive calendars, with back-to-back meetings and inbox management filling the gaps, is precisely the environment most likely to produce degraded strategic decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hours per week does the average CEO work?
The HBR CEO time study, which tracked 27 CEOs across their entire weeks including evenings and weekends, found an average of 62.5 hours per week. This is substantially higher than the 40-hour standard but lower than the 80-plus hours often cited anecdotally. The study is considered the most methodologically rigorous data on this question.
What percentage of CEO time is spent in meetings?
The HBR study found that meetings consumed 72 percent of CEO time, or roughly 45 hours per week. McKinsey research on a broader sample of senior executives finds a somewhat lower figure of around 23 percent, reflecting differences in seniority level and meeting definition. The HBR 72 percent figure includes all scheduled interactions, while McKinsey's 23 percent figure is more narrowly defined.
How much CEO time is spent on admin tasks?
The HBR CEO time study found approximately 16 percent of CEO time went to administrative tasks including scheduling, travel booking, expense reporting, and file management. For a CEO working 62.5 hours per week, that is approximately 10 hours per week, or more than 500 hours per year of work that a skilled executive assistant can handle.
What is the highest-leverage use of executive time?
CEOs in the HBR study consistently rated solo strategic thinking as their highest-leverage activity, yet it received only 6 percent of their time. The executives who rated their own performance highest were those who had found structural ways to protect blocks of uninterrupted thinking time, typically through a combination of calendar management and administrative delegation.
For data on where admin time specifically goes, see our breakdown of admin task statistics. To understand how to get more of that time back, read our guide on how to delegate effectively. If you want to discuss restructuring your own schedule, contact us to talk through your specific situation.
