What Is Highest Sustainable Pace?

By Andrew Hartman, Founder of Time Boss

Highest Sustainable Pace™ is getting the results you want, week over week, with an experience of life you actually want. It is your optimal pace, not your maximum pace. Highest Sustainable Pace is the combination of peace and progress: real PROGRESS on your top priorities, and PEACE in your day-to-day schedule.

The term comes from Time Boss, the time management training company founded by Andrew Hartman. It is the goal the whole Time Boss framework is built to reach.

Maximum pace vs. sustainable pace

Anyone can sprint. You can work a punishing week, or even fake it for a month. But a sprint is borrowed time, and the bill always comes due: missed sleep, skipped workouts, short tempers at home, and work quality that degrades.

Your Highest Sustainable Pace is different. It is a speed you can run at week after week without breaking you down. We are after your “highest”, because you are a person that is up to something, and you want to make impact wherever you focus. We are after “sustainable”, because you can keep it up week over week, month over month, year over year, and produce incredible results.

Why it matters

Burnout isn't about hours. It's about pace. You can work 20-hour weeks and feel fried, or 80-hour weeks and feel fully alive. The difference is whether you are operating at your Highest Sustainable Pace.

Most leaders don't know theirs. They take on commitments based on what they wish were true, and end up overwhelmed with more to do than time to do it.

Signs you are above your Highest Sustainable Pace

You commit to more than you can reasonably accomplish, then absorb the extra by working nights and weekends.
Unexpected urgent items derail your week, every week.
You skip your personal priorities (workouts, meals, family dinners) because they don't feel on fire.
You carry your to-do list in your head, and it follows you home.
You hit your goals, but you look and feel strained.

How to find your Highest Sustainable Pace

Know your actual capacity. Open your calendar and subtract the immovable things: meetings, commutes, family responsibilities, and seven to eight hours of sleep. What is left is your real capacity, and it is finite. Reality is your friend.
Budget time like cash, not credit. If you say yes to something, you must immediately answer “when?” Put it on your calendar, or don't commit to it.
Force rank your commitments and make commitment plans for the ones that don't fit. If your calendar is full, you need to take the items that don’t fit and either (1) strategically defer them, (2) delegate them (to a human or AI), or (3) delete them. Those are your only options.
Budget for the unexpected. The chaos is here to stay. Leave Whirlwind time in your week for urgent items you can't predict, so they don't wreck your plan.
Run the two habits. A Weekly Planning Meeting to match your week to your actual capacity aligned to your goal and values, and a short Daily Review Meeting to stay committed to your plan and emotionally close down your day. These two habits make Highest Sustainable Pace automatic.

Highest Sustainable Pace for teams

A team has a Highest Sustainable Pace too. In the Time Boss Team Audit, completed by 98 leaders from 86 companies, 47% said their team often or always commits to more than it can reasonably accomplish, and 73% said they are concerned someone on their team may burn out. Most teams know their actual priorities, they simply commit to way too many priorities.

When a leadership team shares one weekly framework for capacity, priorities and a plan to deal with the unexpected, the whole team can run at its Highest Sustainable Pace. Participants in Time Boss training report a 43% average productivity increase and 4.8 hours back every week.

Take the free Team Audit to see where your team stands.

Frequently asked questions

Who coined the term Highest Sustainable Pace?

Andrew Hartman, founder of Time Boss. It is the core idea of the Time Boss framework, a weekly operating system for leaders and teams.

Is Highest Sustainable Pace the same as working fewer hours?

No. Some weeks your Highest Sustainable Pace may be long weeks. The point is not fewer hours. It is a pace you can sustain without burning out or giving up what matters most.

How is it different from “sustainable pace” in Agile?

Agile's sustainable pace is about a development team working at a rate it can maintain indefinitely. Highest Sustainable Pace adds the word “highest”: the goal is the most progress you can make while keeping your peace, for any leader or team, not only software teams. Your Highest Sustainable Pace can increase over time.

How do I start?

Watch the free Time Boss Masterclass, a 75-minute walkthrough of the full framework, or book a call to talk through your team.