Leading By Design: How Intentional Leaders Create Sustainable Routines

Zoe Thompson
Jan 24
6 min read

Updated: Nov 14

Your Routine Happens Either By Default Or By Design

Do you prefer the phrase juggling balls or spinning plates?

Regardless of which phrase resonates with you, I'm here to remind you to keep your eyes, attention, and focus on the glass and ceramic ones. The ones that don't bounce if you drop them.

Life and leadership are all about juggling priorities, managing time, and knowing which tasks to keep in motion.

The critical question is: which ball are you focusing on today, and is it the right one?

n artistic depiction of a person juggling colourful balls and plates of various sizes, symbolising balance and prioritisation in life. — Life is all about balance—juggling priorities, managing time, and knowing which tasks to keep in motion. Which 'ball' will you focus on today?

The Glass Balls You Cannot Afford To Drop

Here's what most leaders don't realise.

You're not just juggling your own balls. You're juggling everyone else's too.

Your team's urgent requests, your stakeholders' priorities, your organisation's latest initiative, alongside your own strategic work, your team's development, and your personal priorities.

Some of these balls are rubber. They bounce when you drop them. A delayed email response, a rescheduled meeting, a task that shifts to next week. These bounce back.

However, some balls are glass. Your health. Your key relationships. Your team's trust. Your strategic vision. These don't bounce. When you drop them, they shatter.

The challenge isn't just knowing which balls are glass and which are rubber. The challenge is that when you're in reactive mode, you're catching whatever gets thrown at you rather than intentionally choosing what to keep in the air.

When Your Routine Happens By Default

Most leaders operate with routines that happen by default rather than by design.

Your calendar fills with meetings you didn't consciously choose to attend. Your day gets consumed by whoever's urgent becomes your priority. Your strategic work keeps getting pushed aside because there's always something more immediate demanding attention.

You finish the week exhausted, wondering what you actually accomplished. You worked long hours, you were constantly busy, you dealt with crisis after crisis. However, the important work, the glass balls, they're still sitting there untouched.

This is reactive leadership in action. Your routine is being shaped by external demands rather than internal priorities. You're spinning plates because they're there, not because they matter.

Last week I was travelling a fair bit. Two trips to London and a weekend of basketball meant I wasn't home much, so I had to be intentional with the time I had.

Without that intentional design, the week would have controlled me rather than me controlling the week.

When Your Routine Happens By Design

Intentional leaders design their routines around what matters most.

This week I have a much slower-paced week. No travelling and time set aside to work on the priority tasks for this week, plus anything that rolled over from last week that still matters.

I have a clear list of the priority tasks that need to be done this week to keep me on track, and I've timeboxed my calendar to ensure the time is protected to get them done.

I've booked into my gym classes to ensure that I stay active, and even set an alarm to ensure that I'm winding down before I go to sleep. I've booked time with a friend to give me some time out, and I'm looking forward to another basketball game at the end of the week.

This isn't accidental. This is designed.

You cannot spend every week in the fast lane. You need to make sure that you have a change of pace, and that your average pace is sustainable for long periods of time. When you design your routine intentionally, you protect the glass balls whilst letting some rubber balls drop without guilt.

The AAA Time Framework™: Designing Your Week Intentionally

The difference between reactive routines and intentional routines comes down to how you allocate your time and energy across three categories.

Ascend Time: Your High-Value Strategic Work

These are the activities that move you and your team forward. Strategic planning, developing your team's capability, building relationships with key stakeholders, working on that project that will create significant impact.

This is glass ball territory. When you don't protect Ascend time, you stay stuck at your current level of leadership. You're maintaining, however, you're not developing.

Most leaders in reactive mode spend almost no time on Ascend activities. They're too busy firefighting to focus on what would prevent the fires.

Anchor Time: Your Necessary Operational Work

These are the activities that keep things running. Team meetings, emails, reports, operational decisions, day-to-day management.

This work is necessary, however, it shouldn't consume your entire week. When Anchor time expands to fill all available space, you're operating as a manager, not leading as a leader.

Avoid Time: Your Low-Value Reactive Tasks

These are the activities that don't need your involvement at all. Tasks you should delegate, meetings you don't need to attend, emails you shouldn't be on, problems your team should solve themselves.

Most reactive leaders spend significant time on Avoid activities without realising it. They're caught up in urgency that feels important but doesn't actually require their leadership.

Audit Your Week: Where Is Your Time Actually Going?

Before you can design an intentional routine, you need to understand your current reality.

Track your time for three days.

Not what you think you're doing, what you're actually doing. Every task, every meeting, every interruption. Then categorise each activity: Ascend, Anchor, or Avoid.

Most leaders are shocked by what they discover. Hours spent on Avoid activities. Minimal time on Ascend work. Anchor tasks expanding to fill every available moment.

This is why I created the AAA Time Audit. It helps you see clearly where your time is actually going versus where it needs to go to lead intentionally.

Designing Your Routine Around What Matters

Once you understand your current reality, you can design differently.

Start by protecting Ascend time first. Block time in your calendar for strategic work before anything else gets scheduled. This is your glass ball time. Guard it fiercely.

Then allocate appropriate time for Anchor activities. These are necessary, however, they shouldn't expand indefinitely. Set boundaries around how much time they consume.

Finally, ruthlessly eliminate or delegate Avoid activities. These are the rubber balls you need to let drop or hand to someone else.

When you design your week this way, you're leading by design rather than reacting by default. You're choosing which balls to keep in the air based on what matters most, not based on what lands in your inbox.

The Discipline Of Intentional Routines

Designing your routine is one thing. Maintaining it requires discipline and boundaries.

Your team will still bring urgent requests. Stakeholders will still want immediate responses.

Crises will still occur. The difference is how you respond.

When you've designed your routine intentionally, you can assess each request against your priorities.

Does this require Ascend time?
Is it genuinely urgent or just uncomfortable to delay?
Can someone else handle this?
Am I the bottleneck or am I enabling dependency?

This is where boundaries matter. Saying no to meetings that don't need you. Delegating problems your team should solve. Protecting your strategic time even when pressure mounts to give it up.

The leaders who sustain intentional routines aren't the ones who never face urgency. They're the ones who maintain their boundaries even when it feels difficult.

Start With Your Next Week

You don't need to transform your entire routine overnight. Start with your next week.

Complete the AAA Time Audit to understand where your time is currently going. Identify one Ascend activity that you'll protect time for next week. Choose one Avoid activity you'll delegate or eliminate.

Design one intentional routine element and maintain it for a week. Then add another. Small, consistent changes create sustainable transformation.

Your routine will happen either by default or by design. The choice is yours.

When you design your routine around what matters most, you stop dropping the glass balls whilst trying to catch everything thrown at you. You lead intentionally rather than react constantly. You create success that feels as good as it looks.

Ready to see where your time is actually going?

Download the AAA Time Audit and discover how much time you're spending on Ascend, Anchor, and Avoid activities. This 3-day audit will show you exactly where to focus your attention to lead more intentionally.

Get your free AAA Time Audit here: www.zoethompson.uk/quick-links

When you understand where your time goes, you can design your routine to protect what matters most.

Zoe

If you're ready to take this further, I can help.

I support leaders and business owners to balance their ambition with the habits and behaviours that create aligned success, success that feels as good as it looks.

I do this through: