Cory Miller breaks his day into three work buckets-Conversation, Execution, and Thinking-to manage energy, avoid burnout, and stay productive across time zones.
Cory Miller finds clarity by sorting his work into three buckets: Conversations for meetings and Slack, Doing the Work for video creation, and Thinking about the Work for strategy and dreaming. By allocating specific times-morning conversations, mid-week deep work, and dedicated dreaming slots-he creates predictable structure while preserving creative freedom. This approach helps him balance a growing, distributed team in Europe with family responsibilities back in Oklahoma.
He acknowledges that his core driver is fear and uncertainty, which pushes him to overextend during periods of change, such as recent M&As. By deliberately building internal trust and accepting what's out of his control, he reduces anxiety and prevents burnout. The practice of early-day conversations and reserving Tuesdays and Thursdays for delivery and ideation gives him visible anchors that keep his energy sustainable.
The piece shows why technical leaders should map their day into distinct modes instead of letting work bleed together. It offers concrete scheduling cues-6 a.m. start for conversations, dedicated deep-work windows, and routine household tasks-to protect personal time and maintain high-impact output. The result is a repeatable framework that any leader can adapt to manage distributed teams, avoid burnout, and keep strategic thinking alive.
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