My last CTO role (team of 40) had me absolutely over capacity from day one, and I am _good_ at time management. I would rather have been programming 50% of the time, but there just was no time, and no support structure in place I could hand stuff off to; I had to painstakingly build that, which was yet another reason I had no time.
I like the idea of continuing to code, but usually that’s not what you’re being paid for, and while I consider myself a very strong developer, they can be purchased for less than the CTO’s salary, rather than the more expensive CTO doing the work. FWIW I went back to IC after a few years and plan to stay that way for the rest of my career.
If “that decision” you mean going back to IC, it’s going well I think? I work remotely from outside the US, get a decent salary, and have a lot less stress than I used to! I’m currently working on AI projects I find really interesting and I’m getting a decent US developer salary in a tax-free company. Plan to retire in 15 years.
Getting Things Done and Seven Habits set the foundation, and then just iterating on those principles until I found systems that worked for me. Big believer in not using the Inbox as a task list, and apps that make setting, repeating, and organising reminders very easy.
My last CTO role (team of 40) had me absolutely over capacity from day one, and I am _good_ at time management. I would rather have been programming 50% of the time, but there just was no time, and no support structure in place I could hand stuff off to; I had to painstakingly build that, which was yet another reason I had no time.
I like the idea of continuing to code, but usually that’s not what you’re being paid for, and while I consider myself a very strong developer, they can be purchased for less than the CTO’s salary, rather than the more expensive CTO doing the work. FWIW I went back to IC after a few years and plan to stay that way for the rest of my career.