12/ The 90-Minute Focus Sprint

Greetings Leaders!

Meetings. Messages. Mental clutter.

Most leaders spend their day reacting. Few get to create.

But there’s one thing top leaders know:

Deep work beats busy work.
Even one focused window, just 90 minutes, can move the needle. Not someday. This week.

That’s where today’s μstrategy comes in.

Let’s dig in.

12/ The 90-minute Focus Sprint

Small shift. Big clarity. Real velocity.

CLARITY

Progress Needs Protection

One former CEO I coached had it all. A billion-dollar SaaS portfolio, sharp instincts, and a high-performing team. And yet, progress stalled.

They weren’t burned out. They were buried.

Their days vanished into meetings, approvals, and firefighting. Tools helped. So did advice. But nothing truly stuck. Deep work sounded good in theory, but every attempt ended in frustration:

“I can focus,” they said, “but I don’t know what to decide. And when I do, it doesn’t lead anywhere.”

The deeper issue? Time wasn’t theirs. Their calendar belonged to everyone but them. Every slot was claimed by someone else, a department check-in, a fire drill, a “quick sync.”

I asked for one thing: 90-minutes a day, for four weeks. Not a productivity hack. A leadership habit. Time that couldn’t be scheduled over, pushed aside, or traded.

The deal was simple:

Week 1: Expect discomfort. Expect failure.
Week 2: Notice what clicks. Don’t overthink it.
Week 3: Protect it like oxygen. It will start to matter.
Week 4: Tell your team what matters—not with words, but with your calendar.

By Week 4, they issued a new norm through their Chief of Staff:

“This block is mine. It’s where I do the thinking that drives direction.”

It wasn’t just clarity for them. It was clarity for everyone.

Decisions landed faster. Strategies gained teeth. Execution finally caught rhythm.

Not because of magic. Because of a calendar that finally told the truth.

VELOCITY

The 90-Minute Focus Sprint

“To produce at your peak level you need to work for extended periods with full concentration.”

– Cal Newport

Velocity isn’t just about speed. It’s about forward motion.

The 90-Minute Focus Sprint is a micro-strategy designed for that exact shift:

1. Set the Block
↳ Choose a 90-minute window. Mornings work best.
↳ Block it on your calendar like a board meeting.

2. Name the Outcome
↳ Write this: “By the end of this sprint, I will have _____.”
↳ Focus on outcomes, not effort. Draft, decide, design.

3. Clear the Deck
↳ One browser tab. No Slack. No email.
↳ Let your team know: heads down, not gone.

4. Wrap It Right
↳ Log what moved forward. Log what still needs clarity.
↳ Repeat tomorrow. And again the next day.

In a 2024 study by Atlassian, teams and leaders who adopted daily focus sprints completed 26% more high-priority work on time. McKinsey found top-performing execs are 5x more likely to schedule strategic work time.

Deep work isn’t a luxury. It’s leverage.

When you focus with purpose, you create real movement. Not just progress. Progress that compounds.

MASTERY

Turn Clarity into Culture

By Week 3, the block had become sacred for the CEO I was working with. It wasn’t just helpful. It was energizing.

By Week 4, their team noticed. Not just the output, the presence. Less swirl. More decisions. Fire drills slowed down. Slack messages quieted. Momentum spread.

And it started with one simple decision: to lead by example.

The Focus Sprint didn’t just change one leader’s week. It changed how the entire org thought about time.

Leadership is contagious. When you show up with clarity, your team does too.

And when you guard one 90-minute window, you signal something bigger:

“We don’t just react here. We create.”

The habit becomes a heartbeat. The heartbeat becomes a culture.

This Week’s Practice