Summary / Net

Most senior executives do not have a productivity problem. They have an overload, attention, energy, relationship, and prioritization problem. The CHU Management System — CHUMS — is my personal operating system for getting shit done without letting the loudest, most urgent, or most emotionally reactive issue take over my life.

CHUMS is not a software platform, productivity app, or universal template. It is a weekly paper-and-Google-Sheet discipline I use to manage work, family, relationships, health, values, commitments, follow-up, and focus. The specific system is mine. The larger point is universal: every serious leader needs a system.

Why I Built CHUMS

I originally developed what became the CHU Management System during the seven years I founded and led The Loyalty Group, that created, launched and grew the AIR MILES Canada shopping reward program and database/ internet marketing business. Like many entrepreneurs and CEOs, I had too many priorities, too many people depending on me, too many ideas, too many meetings, too many relationships to maintain, and too many chances for something important to fall through the cracks.

Later, in 2016, I began using the system again while working at Year Up, where my work involved roughly 60 internal colleagues, more than 100 external partners, and 12 locations. That was the kind of operating environment where “I’ll remember that” is not a system. It is a fantasy.  It also served me well when I used it in 2020 as Vice Chair of Alan Khazei’s congressional campaign in Massachusetts 4^th District.  I have described well-funded competitive political campaigns are like an “internet start-up on speed.”  Personal management systems are a life saver in these environments.

CHUMS is heavily influenced by Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, David Allen’s Getting Things Done, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz’s The Power of Full Engagement, James Clear’s Atomic Habits, conversations with friends and colleagues, and a lot of agile trial and error. It is also influenced by a simple, humbling reality I have learned repeatedly in my life: when I use my system, things get done. When I don’t, things fall off my plate, and I drift into a growing pile of “urgent and important” crises.

The “triple-infinity” symbol represents the need for leaders to keep the most important things, actions, tasks, and priorities among your business, your family, and yourself in balance.  This was something emphasized for me personally during the many years I was a member of The Young Presidents Organization, while CEO of The Loyalty Group in Toronto.

The name is slightly tongue-in-cheek: CHUMS stands for CHU Management System. But the point is serious. CHUMS is a personal operating system for self-leadership.

And for senior executives, self-leadership is not optional. If you cannot manage your own attention, energy, values, relationships, commitments, and follow-up, you will eventually transfer your internal disorganization to the organization you lead.

The Big Idea: Senior Executives Need a Personal Operating System

Most executives already have organizational systems. They have strategic plans, dashboards, CRM systems, board packets, financial models, Slack channels, calendars, and performance reviews. But many do not have an equally disciplined personal system for deciding what deserves attention this week, what must happen today, who needs care and connection, what values must be lived, and what can safely wait.

That gap is dangerous.

Without a personal operating system, leaders become reactive. They chase whatever is loudest. They answer the latest email. They respond to the most anxious stakeholder. They spend too much time in Covey’s “urgent and important” quadrant and not enough time on the important-but-not-yet-urgent work that actually builds a life, a team, a strategy, and an institution.

CHUMS is my attempt to solve that problem for myself.

It has 11 parts:

1. Daily and weekly self-monitoring
2. Personal must-dos
3. Weekly to-do list
4. Strategic priorities and relationships
5. Calendar blocking
6. Must do today before I sleep
7. Rolling discussion lists, house list, and someday/maybe
8. Live your values
9. Feedback is a gift
10. Weekly must-do / three priorities per day
11. The 86,400 reminder

Here is how each part works.

1. Daily and Weekly Self-Monitoring

What is it?

The first section of CHUMS is a simple weekly tracker. It includes the people and practices I want to stay connected to each week.

For me, the initials and abbreviations on the left-hand side are personal:

J = Jordan, my oldest child.
M = Myles, my youngest child.
LEZ = my wife, Laura.
X = exercise.
S/G = spiritual practice and gratitude.
SSU = my sister Sharon.
CUF = my sister Cecilia.

This section is influenced by Stephen Covey’s “Sharpen the Saw” habit — the idea that we must renew ourselves across the physical, mental, emotional/social, and spiritual dimensions if we want to remain effective.

How do I use it in practice?

Each week, I track whether I have engaged with these people or practices. Did I connect with my kids? Did I connect meaningfully with Laura? Did I exercise? Did I do anything spiritual or gratitude-oriented? Did I check in with my sisters?

This is not meant to be a guilt machine. It is a visibility tool.

A senior executive can easily spend the week serving clients, employees, donors, investors, board members, political allies, or external stakeholders — and then realize that the people and practices that matter most personally received the least intentional attention.

This section makes that visible.

Why include it?

Because what gets tracked gets attention.

Executives are usually very good at tracking business metrics. Revenue. Margin. Retention. Pipeline. Fundraising. Cash runway. Employee engagement. Customer satisfaction. But we often fail to track the personal relationships and renewal practices that keep us grounded and human.

This section reminds me that productivity is not just doing more work. It is living the right life while doing the work.

If I say my family matters, my system should reflect that. If I say health matters, my system should reflect that. If I say spirituality, gratitude, or reflection matters, my system should reflect that.

Otherwise, my stated values and my calendar can be in conflict.

2. Personal Must-Dos

What is it?

This is the short list of the most important personal things I must get done this week.

Not someday. Not eventually. This week.

These are not necessarily the biggest strategic projects. They are the personal commitments that matter enough to deserve explicit weekly attention.

How do I use it in practice?

When I update CHUMS on Sunday night, I ask: what personal things must happen this week for me to feel I have honored my commitments to myself and the people closest to me?

That might include a family follow-up, a personal finance task, a health appointment, a home issue, a difficult conversation, a commitment to Laura, a call with one of my kids, or something I have been avoiding.

The key is that it gets written down in a place I will see all week.

Why include it?

Because personal obligations do not become less important because they are not professional.

Many senior leaders unconsciously privilege work commitments over personal commitments because work commitments come with meetings, deadlines, assistants, board pressure, customers, and money attached. Personal commitments are often quieter. They do not always send calendar invites.

But neglected personal commitments create stress, guilt, friction, and emotional drag. They also erode integrity. If I repeatedly fail to do what I told myself or my family I would do, I become less trustworthy to myself.

This section protects my personal credibility.

3. Weekly To-Do List

What is it?

This is the classic weekly capture list, heavily influenced by David Allen’s Getting Things Done. Allen’s GTD method emphasizes capturing what has your attention, clarifying what it means, organizing it where it belongs, reviewing it regularly, and then engaging with the right work.  Allen advises against keeping a long daily to-do list, as spending time on most nights moving things that did not get done that day to the next can become energy sapping.

In CHUMS, this becomes a weekly written list of work and personal to-dos.

How do I use it in practice?

The list is organized along the right-hand side of the matrix roughly by my most important clients, projects, and people.  CHUDOW – stands for CHU (to) Do Other Work related and CHUDOP – for CHU (to)Do Other Personal.  IC/ AI is a bucket to make sure I build intellectual capital every week and AI to remind me to keep up with the latest developments in artificial intelligence.

The point is to avoid what I call the “four-year-old soccer problem”: every kid chases the same ball.

Organizations do this. Leaders do this. I do this. The urgent issue gets the ball, and suddenly every person, meeting, and ounce of energy is chasing it while other important areas are neglected.

During the week, whenever something comes up, I write it down. I do not rely on memory. I do not assume I will magically remember it after the meeting, after the bike ride, after walking Izzy, or after the next call.

On Sunday night, I update the system in Google Sheets, print it, and carry it with me. Yes, I am trying to eliminate paper from much of my life. But for this, paper still works. I can fold it in half and keep it in my jacket pocket.  A few more folds and it fits in my jeans or cycling jersey pocket.  If something occurs to me while walking the dog, riding my bike, sitting in a meeting, or thinking through a client issue, I can write it down quickly and get it out of my head.

Why include it?

Because the brain is a terrible office.

It is wonderful for creativity, empathy, pattern recognition, judgment, and strategy. It is not wonderful as a storage facility for 73 unrelated commitments.

David Allen’s core insight is that unprocessed commitments create mental residue. The more open loops we carry in our heads, the less fully present we are for the task or person in front of us.

For senior executives, this matters enormously. Your attention is one of the most valuable assets in the organization. If your mind is cluttered with unrecorded obligations, you are spending executive attention on memory management instead of judgment.

Writing things down is not clerical. It is strategic.

4. Most Important Strategic Relationships and Priorities

What is it?

The last two columns force me to list 1-3 relationships in appropriate areas of focus that I must invest in during the week and to whittle down the many to-do items under each to the 1-3 that simply must get done by the end of the week.

How do I use it in practice?

I use the categories to force a broader scan.  The most important relationships and priorities in each category ensure that I narrow down and prioritize those actions and people that are most important for the period.

What needs attention in each major area? What am I ignoring? Which relationships need follow-up? Which strategic priority is quietly drifting? Which area has become too dominant? Which important work is not urgent enough to scream yet?

This section turns my week from a random pile of tasks into a portfolio.

Why include it?

Because executive work is portfolio work.

A CEO or senior leader is rarely responsible for one thing. You are responsible for strategy, people, capital, culture, customers, operations, governance, risk, external relationships, and often your own health and family system at the same time.

If you only manage the loudest category, you will underperform in the quieter ones.

This section creates balance. It forces me to ask: am I paying attention to the whole field, or am I chasing the ball?

5. Calendar Blocking

What is it?

I use this section to block out my calendar, identify major client and board meetings, presentations, and color-code travel dates. It gives me a high-level overview of the most important personal and business events that will require major prep work or personal planning over the next two months.

How do I use it in practice?

At the beginning of the week, I look at the major events and commitments coming up over the next 8 weeks and make sure the requisite pre-work is somewhere on the list above or elsewhere recorded in the system.

Why include it?

This section helps me connect intention to time. It also helps me see overcommitment before it becomes failure. If I have 30 hours of meetings and 50 hours of work I claim must get done, the math is not going to work. Pretending otherwise does not make me ambitious. It makes me irresponsible.

Calendar visibility is a form of honesty.

6. Must Do Today Before I Sleep

What is it?

This is the daily hard-stop section: what must I do today before I go to sleep?  With all due respect to David Allen, this is my daily to do list.  I use an erasable pen to fill it in each morning before starting my day and clear it by the end.

This includes any true Covey Quadrant I items — things that are both urgent and important. But it is not limited to crisis work. It can also include one or two actions that simply cannot be allowed to slip another day.

How do I use it in practice?

Each day, I identify the small number of things that must happen before I sleep. Not 20 things. Not everything. The real must-dos.

This is the section that confronts the day directly.

At the end of a long day, when I am tired, distracted, or tempted to postpone something uncomfortable, this section asks: what did I promise myself would get done today?

Why include it?

Because weeks are won or lost in days.

A beautiful weekly plan can still fail if there is no daily commitment mechanism. This section turns the system into action.

It also helps distinguish between “I was busy” and “I did what mattered.” Senior executives can be busy every minute of the day and still avoid the one conversation, decision, note, workout, apology, or follow-up that actually mattered most.

The phrase “before I sleep” creates useful pressure. It makes the commitment concrete.

7. Rolling Discussion Lists, House Perfect List, and Someday/Maybe

What is it?

The right side of the front page is a set of rolling lists.

I use it to track topics I need to discuss with team members, client contacts, consultants, family members, friends, and collaborators. Instead of immediately calling or texting every time a thought occurs to me, I write it down under the relevant person or project.

This section also includes ideas for articles, my “House Perfect List” — smaller or larger things I need to do around the house or yard — and a “Someday/Maybe” list, borrowed directly from David Allen’s Getting Things Done framework.

How do I use it in practice?

When I think of something I need to discuss with someone, I put it in that person’s box. Then, when we meet or talk, I have a ready-made agenda.

This improves the quality of meetings and reduces the number of interruptive one-off communications. Instead of spraying texts, emails, and half-formed thoughts throughout the week, I batch topics for the right moment.

For the Collaboration Evangelist articles, House Perfect List and Someday/Maybe list, the same principle applies: capture without overcommitting. Not everything belongs on this week’s must-do list. Some things simply need a trusted parking place.

Why include it?

Because not every thought deserves immediate action.

This is especially important for senior leaders. Executives generate a lot of ideas, questions, concerns, and follow-ups. If every thought becomes an immediate interruption for someone else, the leader becomes a chaos machine.

A rolling discussion list creates discipline. It respects other people’s attention. It makes meetings better. It lets me remember without reacting.

The Someday/Maybe list is equally important because it gives ideas a place to live without letting them hijack the week. That is a critical distinction. A good idea is not always a current priority.

8. Live Your Values

What is it?

The left side of the back page is my values reminder. It lists the personal values and commitments I am trying to live.

The emphasis is on trying.

This section is not a declaration that I am fully living these values every day. It is a reminder of who I want to be and how I want to show up.

For me, this includes being the best father I can be, being a good brother, honoring my parents by how I live and work, being respectfully and graciously honest, taking care of myself physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually, using my experience and resources to help others, fighting for justice, being conscious of the impact of my words and actions, not judging others, being the best partner to Laura and best human to Izzy I can be, and passionately promoting what I believe in.

How do I use it in practice?

I keep it on the back page so I see it repeatedly. It is not a framed statement on a wall. It is part of the weekly system.

That matters. Values should not be separated from execution. They should shape execution.

When I review my week, I am not only asking, “What do I need to get done?” I am also asking, “Who am I trying to become while I get it done?”

Why include it?

Because productivity without values can become efficient selfishness.

Many senior executives are extremely productive by conventional measures. They clear inboxes, make decisions, hit numbers, raise capital, close deals, and move fast. But speed and volume are not the same as leadership.

This section forces me to connect action to identity. James Clear’s Atomic Habits argues that lasting behavior change is connected to identity — not merely what goal we want to achieve, but what kind of person we believe we are becoming.

For me, CHUMS is not just a task system. It is an identity system. It reminds me that the goal is not simply to get more shit done. The goal is to get the right shit done in a way that is consistent with the person I am trying to be.

9. Feedback Is a Gift

What is it?

This section captures some of the most important feedback I have received from supervisors, mentors, colleagues, friends, and role models.

It includes short reminders — phrases that mean something specific to me. Some are blunt. Some are cryptic to anyone else. Some are deeply personal. The point is not that the phrases would work for everyone. The point is that they work for me.

How do I use it in practice?

I keep the feedback visible so I cannot conveniently forget it.

Most of us say feedback is a gift. But in practice, we often treat feedback like a gift we would like to return, exchange, reinterpret, or bury in a drawer!

This section makes feedback operational. It turns lessons learned into recurring prompts.

Why include it?

Because leaders repeat avoidable mistakes when feedback is not converted into practice.

Senior executives often receive a lot of feedback, but not always honest feedback. The more senior you become, the more people manage you, flatter you, fear you, or soften the message. So, when you do receive real feedback, you should treat it as valuable data.

But insight fades. A hard lesson learned in March can be forgotten by June. This section keeps the lesson alive.

It also reinforces humility. No matter how experienced I am, I still have things to work on. The system reminds me of that every week.

10. Weekly Must-Do / Three Priorities Per Day

What is it?

The top right side of the back page can be used to list three priorities per day for the week. I have also used it as a blank note-taking space or as a place to list annual goals.

The three-priorities structure is intentionally simple.

How do I use it in practice?

For each day, I write the three things that would make the day successful.

Not 12. Not 27. Three.

This creates focus without pretending the day is clean, predictable, or fully controllable. It gives me a simple way to answer: if everything goes sideways, what are the few things that still matter?

Why include it?

Because constraints create clarity.

Executives are vulnerable to over-listing. We confuse ambition with volume. We put too much on the list and then feel behind before the day starts.

Three priorities force choice. Choice is the essence of strategy.

This section also creates a bridge between weekly planning and daily execution. The weekly system sets the field. The daily priorities define the play.

11. The 86,400 Reminder

What is it?

The final section is a visual reminder: 86,400; Be The Buffalo: Make The Next Best Choice; Proverbs 3:27.

There are 86,400 seconds in a day. Something I learned from my Pastor and Spiritual Entrepreneur friend Ray Hammond. For me, this symbol is a reminder to make the most of each day, confront challenges directly, not dwell endlessly on mistakes, and help others when I am able.

How do I use it in practice?

I do not use this as a productivity hack. I use it as a perspective hack.

Some days go well. Some do not. Some include progress. Some include mistakes. Some include conflict, disappointment, fatigue, or frustration.

The 86,400 reminder helps me reset. It says: this day is finite. Use it. Do not waste it in avoidance, resentment, self-pity, distraction, or fear.

Why include it?

Because time is the only non-renewable leadership resource.

Money can sometimes be raised. Staff can sometimes be hired. Strategy can sometimes be revised. Reputation can sometimes be rebuilt. But the day is spent once.

This does not mean every second should be optimized. That would be exhausting and inhuman. It means the day should be honored.

For a senior executive, the question is not merely “How do I get more done?” The deeper question is: “How do I make choices worthy of the time I have?”

Why the Whole System Works

CHUMS works for me because it integrates five things that are often separated:

1. Tasks
2. Time
3. Energy
4. Relationships
5. Values

Most productivity systems over-focus on tasks. They help you capture, sort, and complete work. That is useful, but incomplete.

Senior executive effectiveness is not just task completion. It is sustained judgment, emotional regulation, strategic focus, relationship management, physical and mental energy, and values-based action under pressure.

That is why The Power of Full Engagement is such an important influence on CHUMS. Loehr and Schwartz argue that managing energy, not just time, is central to high performance. A leader with a perfectly organized calendar but depleted physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual energy is not operating at full strength.

CHUMS also works because it is reviewed weekly. A system that is not reviewed becomes clutter. A system that is reviewed becomes trusted.

My Sunday night practice matters. I update the Google Sheet, print the system, and carry it with me. That ritual turns CHUMS from a document into a discipline.

James Clear’s Atomic Habits emphasizes the power of small, repeatable systems. The point is not heroic motivation. The point is designing a structure that makes the desired behavior more likely. CHUMS does that for me. It makes remembering, reviewing, prioritizing, connecting, and acting easier.

It also creates accountability. Even when no one else sees the sheet, I see it. I know what I wrote down. I know what I said mattered. I know what I avoided.

That is powerful.

What Happens When I Do Not Use It

When I do not use CHUMS, my productivity does not collapse all at once. It degrades gradually.

First, I start relying on memory. Then I miss small things. Then I become more reactive. Then important-but-not-urgent work slips. Then relationships become less intentional. Then my day gets captured by other people’s priorities. Then I feel behind. Then I start chasing the crisis of the day. Or, at worst, fall into a state of depression or anxiety paralysis.

Eventually, I end up with exactly what Covey warned about: too much time in the urgent and important quadrant because I failed to invest enough time in preparation, prevention, relationships, renewal, and planning.

When I do not use CHUMS, I also become more likely to confuse motion with progress. I answer emails, create PowerPoint slides, attend meetings, respond to texts, and knock off visible tasks, but I may not be moving the most important priorities forward.

Worst of all, I become more likely to drift away from my values. Not because I stop believing in them, but because I stop seeing them.

That is how it happens for many leaders. They do not abandon their values dramatically. They simply get busy. Then they get reactive. Then they get tired. Then they rationalize. Then the urgent crowds out the important. Then, slowly, the life they are living stops matching the life they say they believe in.

CHUMS is my defense against that drift.

The System Is Mine. The Need Is Universal.

I do not recommend that everyone copy my exact system.

In fact, you should not. CHUMS is highly tailored to my priorities, family, relationships, passions, work, quirks, and flaws. Your system should be tailored to yours.

But I strongly believe every senior executive needs some kind of personal operating system.

It does not have to be paper. It does not have to be a spreadsheet. It does not have to have 11 parts. It does not have to use my language. It does not have to be called anything clever.

But it should help you answer these questions every week:

What matters most?
Who needs my attention?
What must get done?
What can wait?
What am I avoiding?
Where is my energy going?
Am I living my values?
What feedback am I trying to practice?
What must I do today before I sleep?

If your system cannot answer those questions, it is not yet a leadership system. It is just a task list.

A Note for CEOs and Senior Leaders

The higher you rise, the less anyone else can fully manage your attention for you.

An assistant can manage your calendar. A chief of staff can manage your meeting flow. A COO can manage execution rhythms. A board can help set accountability. A coach can ask hard questions.

But no one else can decide, week after week, what kind of leader you are trying to be.

That is your work.

CHUMS is one way I do that work.

It helps me get shit done. But more importantly, it helps me get the right shit done, with the right people in mind, for the right reasons, while trying — imperfectly but seriously — to live the values I claim to hold.

For me, that is the real productivity challenge.

Not just doing more.

Doing what matters.

Building Your Own GSD System

In my CEO coaching and productivity accountability partner (PAP) practice, this is one of the places where I believe I can be most helpful.

Not by handing leaders my system and pretending it will fit their lives.

But by helping them build their own.

A strong executive productivity system should be personal, practical, visible, reviewable, and honest. It should include the work, but not only the work. It should include relationships, energy, renewal, values, feedback, and follow-through. It should be simple enough to use when life gets busy, because that is exactly when the system matters most.

The goal is not to become a productivity robot.

The goal is to become a more intentional leader.

A leader who knows what matters.
A leader who writes it down.
A leader who follows up.
A leader who protects time and energy.
A leader who lives values in practice, not just in speeches.
A leader who gets shit done without losing himself or herself in the process.

That is what CHUMS does for me.

And that is why I still use it.  To paraphrase my son Myles, when I don’t use it, “Shit goes left.”

Here’s a link to the front page google spreadsheet you can edit to start building your own system.

Endnotes

1. Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. CHUMS is especially influenced by Habit 7, “Sharpen the Saw,” and Covey’s distinction between urgent/important work and important-but-not-yet-urgent work.
2. David Allen, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. CHUMS draws heavily on GTD’s core practices of capturing commitments, clarifying next actions, organizing reminders, reviewing regularly, and maintaining a “Someday/Maybe” list.
3. Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. CHUMS reflects the book’s core argument that sustainable high performance requires managing energy across physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual dimensions.
4. James Clear, Atomic Habits. CHUMS reflects Clear’s emphasis on systems, small repeatable practices, identity-based behavior change, and designing structures that make desired behaviors more likely.
5. Gail Matthews, Dominican University of California, research on goal achievement and accountability. The CHUMS presentation cites Matthews’ findings that written goals and weekly accountability increased the percentage of participants who accomplished at least half of their goals.
6. Craig Underwood, CHU Management System aka CHUMS — Overview, updated June 12, 2026. The structure, 11-part framework, personal examples, and CHUMS descriptions are based on the author’s original presentation.

APPENDIX I – FULL FRONT PAGE (BEFORE FOLDING)

APPENDIX II – FULL BACK PAGE (BEFORE FOLDING)