A top Pepsi exec says he organizes every hour of his day in a color-coded pie chart and audits it to ensure he's efficient
PepsiCo, Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
- Pepsi's North America CEO Ram Krishnan says he's "super intentional" about how he spends his time.
- He told Fortune that he uses a pie chart to split his waking hours between five priorities.
- Every few months, he audits the split to see if he needs to "course correct."
PepsiCo Beverages' North America CEO Ram Krishnan has a hack to fully maximize the 24 hours he has in a day.
In an interview with Fortune's "Champion Mindset," released on Friday, Krishnan said that he color-codes his time using a pie chart, which he broadly divides into five categories.
He told Fortune that this method helps him be "intentional" about how he spends his time.
"I, for an example, color code my time management," Krishnan told Fortune.
"I have four or five buckets about how I manage time," he added in the interview. "Every other month, we audit and see how am I spending my time and do I need to course correct."
He said his five buckets are running the business, focusing on people and culture, long-term strategy, learning, and relationships.
Krishnan was previously the senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Frito-Lay North America and had also spent six years working at Cadillac. He started at Pepsi in 2006.
He's now in charge of managing the North American arm of the company, which produces products like Pepsi, Lay's, Gatorade, and Doritos in the US.
PepsiCo North America generated more than $27 billion in net revenue in 2023, according to the company's website.
When asked if he aims for an even split in his time management pie chart, Krishnan said: "I don't think you're going to get to a perfect 20-20-20%."
"I think what you want to be aware of is, 'Oh, I didn't realize the last couple of months, this is how I spent my time. Do I need to course correct?'" Krishnan told Fortune.
"It's more about by the end of the year, how do you hopefully get to a healthy balance," Krishnan added.
Krishnan is also not the only business leader who's shared how he manages his time and stays productive.
Twitter's former CEO, Jack Dorsey, adhered to a rigid wellness schedule while leading the social media platform. This schedule involved walking five miles to work, meditating for two hours, and eating only one meal every day.
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban, meanwhile, said he spends the first hour of his day in bed reading emails.
"I get up probably at 7 or 6:30 a.m., just depending on the day," Cuban said in a "What Now? with Trevor Noah" podcast in January. "I try to do everything by email — so then I'm in bed for an hour chilling, doing my emails, responding to anything that's urgent."
Krishnan did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular office hours.