Being a leader often feels like you need more hours in the day. Between meetings, emails, and supporting your team, finding time to actually lead can be a real challenge. What if there were simple shortcuts—or "hacks"—that could help you be more effective without adding more to your plate? Good news, there are.

This isn't about cutting corners. It’s about working smarter. These leadership hacks are small, powerful adjustments to your daily routine that can free up your time, sharpen your decisions, and boost your team's performance. They are simple, easy to implement, and designed to help you become an even more amazing leader.

Ready to feel a little more unstoppable? Let’s get into these simple tricks that can make a big difference. You’ve got this.

The Two-Way Door Rule

Leaders make countless decisions every day, and it can be draining. Not every choice, however, carries the same weight. The "Two-Way Door" rule is a mental model that helps you make decisions faster by sorting them into two categories.

Imagine a decision is like walking through a door.

  • One-Way Doors: These are big, impactful decisions that are difficult or impossible to reverse. Think of major strategic shifts, large financial commitments, or key hires. These choices deserve slow, careful thought and deep analysis.
  • Two-Way Doors: These are most of your daily decisions. They are reversible. If you make a choice and it doesn't work out, you can easily "walk back through the door" and try something else. This could be a new team workflow, a small project change, or trying out a new software.

Most leaders treat every decision like a one-way door, leading to analysis paralysis.

How to Use This Hack:

When a decision comes your way, ask yourself: "Is this a one-way or a two-way door?"

If it's a two-way door, make the decision quickly. Trust your gut and your team. Don't waste precious time and energy debating something that can be easily undone. This simple question frees up your mental space to focus on the few big decisions that truly matter. It’s a game-changer for efficiency.

The "What's the One Thing?" Opener

Meetings can easily eat up your entire day, often without clear results. To make them more focused and effective, start every single meeting with one simple question: "What's the one thing we need to accomplish in this meeting?"

This question forces everyone to get laser-focused on the primary goal. It cuts through the noise and ensures that the conversation stays on track. It turns a potential time-waster into a productive working session.

How to Use This Hack:

  1. At the start of any meeting, before diving into the agenda, ask the group: "To make this meeting a success, what is the one most important thing we need to decide or solve today?"
  2. Write it down on a whiteboard or in a shared document so everyone can see it.
  3. Use it as your guide. If the conversation starts to wander, gently bring everyone back to the main goal. You can say, "That's an interesting point. Let's make sure we solve our main goal first, and we can circle back to that if we have time."

This hack ensures that every meeting ends with a clear outcome. It respects everyone's time and drives real progress. You’ll leave meetings feeling accomplished, not drained.

The 24-Hour Rule for Tough Emails

We’ve all been there. You get a frustrating email, and your first instinct is to fire back a response. This rarely ends well. A reactive, emotional reply can damage relationships and create unnecessary conflict. The 24-hour rule is a simple hack to prevent this.

When you receive an email that makes you feel angry, frustrated, or defensive, you are not allowed to respond for 24 hours. Simple as that.

How to Use This Hack:

  1. Read the email. Acknowledge the emotion it brings up.
  2. Draft your response if you need to, but do not send it. Get all your feelings out in a draft, then save it and walk away.
  3. Wait 24 hours. Give your emotions time to settle and your logical brain time to catch up.
  4. Re-read and revise. After a day, you'll see the situation with more clarity. Edit your draft to be calm, professional, and solution-focused.

This simple pause gives you the space to respond thoughtfully instead of reacting emotionally. It preserves trust, prevents misunderstandings, and positions you as a calm, measured leader. It’s a small act of discipline with a huge payoff.

Ask "What Are You Learning?"

As a leader, one of your most important jobs is to grow your people. A simple but powerful way to do this is to shift the focus from just "doing" to "learning." Instead of only asking, "What did you get done this week?" add a new question to your one-on-ones: "What's something new you learned this week?"

This question encourages a growth mindset across your entire team. It signals that learning, curiosity, and even small failures are valued. It helps people reflect on their experiences and find lessons in both their successes and their challenges.

How to Use This Hack:

In your regular check-ins or one-on-ones, make it a habit to ask about learning.

  • "What did you learn from that project?"
  • "What was your biggest takeaway from that client meeting?"
  • "What's a new skill you're working on?"

This reframes the conversation around development. It helps your team members see their own progress and builds their confidence. Plus, it gives you a better understanding of their strengths and where they might need more support. This builds a team of learners, not just doers.

Theme Your Days

A leader's brain is pulled in a million different directions. Context-switching between creative work, administrative tasks, and people management is exhausting. A great hack to combat this is to "theme" your days.

This means dedicating each day of the week to a specific type of work. This allows you to batch similar tasks together, which helps you stay in a state of flow and work more deeply and efficiently.

How to Use This Hack:

Look at your main responsibilities and group them into themes. Here’s an example:

  • Monday: Big-picture planning and goal-setting for the week.
  • Tuesday: Focus on external meetings (clients, partners).
  • Wednesday: Deep work day. Block off your calendar for strategic projects with no interruptions.
  • Thursday: Team day. Dedicate the day to one-on-ones, team meetings, and mentoring.
  • Friday: Admin and wrap-up. Clean out your inbox, handle expenses, and prepare for the next week.

Your themes might look different, but the principle is the same. By theming your days, you reduce mental friction and can give each area your full, undivided attention. It creates structure in the chaos and helps you feel more in control.