LearnVest Founder Explains Why You Shouldn't Let Your Calendar Control Your Days

When you're running a business, it's easy to live by your calendar, that arbiter of meetings, to-dos, and deadlines.

But you shouldn't, says self-professed productivity obsessive Alexa von Tobel.

As founder and CEO of personal finance site LearnVest, Tobel oversees a 130-plus person team, steers the growth of the company, and even finds time to do some financial planning for customers herself.

But honoring those business needs means controlling her appointment book rather than letting it control her.

"It's easy to worship your calendar," she says, because if a meeting is already scheduled, it feels too hard to change it. "But no, you should always be doing the most critical thing on any given day."

To do that, she has a ritual similar to A-list cooks. Chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain never fails to set up his mise en place, a phrase that means having everything in its place. "Supplies of sea salt, rough-cracked paper, softened butter, cooking oil, wine, back-ups, and so on" all carefully arranged so that a chef can find everything they need with their eyes closed.

Leaders need to invest in their intellectual mise en place, the Harvard Business Review has argued, so that the day is set up according to what they really need to get done - rather than what the calendar says.

Von Tobel has a similar ritual. "Every day, I look at the day and go through and make sure that I am taking the time in the morning to do the most important things," she says.

That means sometimes the immediate but not important appointments are cast aside.