Our calendars keep getting busier and we keep trying to “manage time” as if time were the problem.

Meanwhile, the real cost shows up where it hurts: our decisions take longer, priorities blur, and execution slows while everyone stays busy.

We’re living inside an “infinite workday.”

Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index put language to what many of us feel, an “infinite workday,” where prime focus hours are consumed by meetings and there’s little room left for deep work or real thinking.

In fact, the survey shows that nearly half of employees (48%), and more than half of leaders (52%), say their work feels chaotic and fragmented. 

That’s what made this conversation with Monisha Longacre so timely. During this episode of The Dr. Ginny Show, How to Create More Time to Do What You Really Want, we were not only talking about productivity. We were talking about capacity, the kind that lets us think and lead clearly and still have energy left when the day ends.

Monisha Longacre is the Founder and CEO of Productivity 101. She’s also the author of Practical Productivity, the creator of a productivity app, Priorigami, and she supports teams through workshops and fractional COO work focused on operational efficiency across contributors, process, and systems.

The real shift: time is not the lever

Early in our conversation, Monisha shared an insight worth repeating: 

“We spend so much of our time trying to manage time, and time is the one thing we cannot control.”

We might think the lever is time. However the lever is what we choose, how we focus, and what we protect.

When our attention gets fragmented, we lose momentum and confidence.

Here’s what it looks like: 

We start a strategic document. A message comes in. We respond quickly. A calendar reminder pops up. We jump into a meeting. We come out, and our brain is still in that room while the inbox is already pulling again. By the time we get back to the document, we are rebuilding momentum from scratch.

That’s not a discipline issue. That’s the environment.

Monisha broke it down into three key levers: priorities, energy, and attention. That is where productivity becomes leadership.

The switching cost leaders feel, even when they are high-performing

There’s another part of this that leaders rarely name out loud: the switching cost. 

We often call it multitasking. However most of what’s happening is rapid switching between tasks, conversations, and decisions. That switching drains focus and increases mistakes. It also makes even high-performing leaders feel scattered.

How this lands for female leaders

And this lands differently for female leaders. “Why?” I asked on purpose.

She highlights what many of us as female leaders experience. Women tend to wear many hats and carry too much, more often. And because of that, self-care and recharging have to be prioritized the same way the to-dos get prioritized, or it never happens.

She contrasted that with how men, in her experience, tend to compartmentalize, and she shared that she sometimes models her husband by saying, “No, I’m not doing that,” or “I’m not doing that right now.”

She also named the pressure many high-performing women leaders carry, the highest expectations of ourselves, trying to be everything to everyone all the time. I can definitely relate to that.

What actually works when the day fights back

I asked Monisha the question we often struggle with.

What happens when we plan our priorities, and suddenly our day belongs to “urgent” requests?

“Urgent?” That was her challenge back to me.

Her answer was simple, practical, and honest: 

• Start with prioritization that is real, then protect focus in small, winnable blocks. Use a prioritization system, like the Eisenhower Matrix, so urgent does not automatically outrank importance.

• Pick a daily top three. Some days, it becomes one. The most important task. That is not underachievement. That is clarity.

• Time-slot the priorities into the calendar. If there is no space to do the work, the list becomes wishful thinking.

• Protect attention with short focus sprints. Monisha referenced the Pomodoro approach: focused work in a tight window, then a planned break to catch up on messages. The point is returning to focus with intention.

• Build a backup slot, a cushion, so one curveball does not steal the entire plan.

Recovery is a leadership input, not a reward

Monisha made a point we encourage every leader and organization to explore: self-care and recharging belong on the priority list. Not as a reward, as a non-negotiable input into clear thinking, patience, and good decisions.

When we role model boundaries and recovery, our teams get permission to do the same.

For example, Monisha shared her no-phone walking break on her calendar, and how it has become a norm her team respects.

We also talked about one of our members and leader who turned her weekly team meeting into “move and talk” check-ins so the team can stay connected while protecting their energy.

The organizational layer senior leaders recognize fast

When leaders do not protect focus, the organization learns that deep work is optional and constant availability is the standard. That standard is expensive.

And this is where one of the most important ideas from our conversation belongs: subtraction.

Most teams keep adding. More meetings. More trackers. More updates. More channels. However, very few teams pause long enough to ask, “What should we remove?”

If we cannot clearly answer what something is for, it’s worth questioning whether it belongs. That one move creates capacity at the individual level and the organizational level.

During our conversation, we covered so much more and invite you to listen now to the full conversation in the podcast or watching the YouTube version below.

Call to Action

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Forward this to your CHRO, COO, or Head of Talent.

Copy and paste this subject line: 

Worth sharing: a practical reset for leader capacity

Asana reports that 60% of the time is spent on “work about work,” not the skilled work that contributors are hired to do.

Grammarly’s 2024 report found knowledge workers spend 88% of their workweek communicating across channels.

When our days are consumed by coordination and communication, we lose speed, we lose clarity, and we lose the space to think. That is where conflict grows, indecision spreads, and misalignment becomes expensive.

At ExecutiveBound®, we help C-suite and executive teams in Financial Services and STEM solve conflict, indecision, and misalignment that slow innovation and delivery. Using the C.A.R.E.S. Leadership Success System™, we partner with leaders and teams to lead from purpose, not acceptance, so they move faster without burning out.

If you’re reading this before Feb. 27, 2026, here’s what I don’t want for us.

We stay so busy delivering that we never pause long enough to lead with intention.

We keep pushing, however we feel it: Less clarity, more overwhelm, less confidence in what to prioritize next.

The 2026 Game Changer Leadership Reset is a moment to step back on purpose and get clear on what your leadership development needs in 2026, and what you can do to make it happen.

Capacity is limited to keep it interactive. Learn more and register here.

We appreciate your help in helping us share it so that together we impact more leaders and teams.

If you’d like to connect directly, book a 15-minute Cyber Coffee or cafecito with me.

Lead with purpose, live with joy! 

Coach Ginny

About Monisha Longacre

Monisha Longacre is the founder and CEO of Productivity 101, Fractional COO,  author of Practical Productivity, and creator of priorigami, a personal task management Mobile app. Monisha is a dynamic business leader with expertise in operational excellence, including people, processes, and systems, with a proven track record of growing, scaling, and optimizing businesses efficiently. To connect with Monisha, visit her website, email her at monishalongacre@productivity101.biz, or follow her on LinkedIn.