You can’t fix what you won’t face.
The CEO Bottleneck Map helps you face it in black-and-white.
This is the critical first step in planning a maternity leave or any time off from your business.
I’ve used this system thousands of times in my operations agency, in Master Maternity Leave with our clients and for my very own delegation strategy over the years.
My recommendation: read through this post, put 40 minutes on the calendar later this week, drop the link in, and give it your undivided attention.
The map
Draw a simple 2×2 matrix:
- Left column: Deciding (things that need your judgment)
- Right column: Doing (things that need your hands)
- Top row: Important (moves the business)
- Bottom row: Menial (matters, but doesn’t move)
Now populate it. Be painfully honest. Calendar, PM tool, Slack, inbox — what lived where this week? Go back two weeks if you’re feeling brave.
What the quadrants tell you
- Important + Deciding: Front-load or codify. These are the high-leverage calls (offer, pricing, marketing plan, hiring). Make them before leave or write the rulebook so your team can.
- Menial + Deciding: Punt. Give your team spending/resource thresholds and let them choose. Save your brain for strategy.
- Important + Doing: Delegate outcomes or design a handoff. This is where founders get stuck (copy, sales calls, complex delivery). Decide: who owns the result, and what “good” looks like?
- Menial + Doing: Automate or eliminate. If it must exist, tech should do it. If tech can’t, a VA can. If neither — does it even belong?
Turning the map into motion
- Pick your top 3 bottlenecks (not 10).
- Decide for each: Delegate, Automate, or Pause.
- Put dates on it. If you plan to outsource paid ads in January, interview now and budget now.
- Re-run the map quarterly. Seasons change. So should your role.
Why this works
The map reveals the real constraints: your time and energy. Decision fatigue and too many to-do’s drain your capacity to lead. When you free that energy, you don’t just get hours back. You get momentum back.
Ahead of your maternity leave, this is powerful work. It can help set the stage for what needs to be tackled before you go out to truly keep your business in momentum mode.
If you want some support with this and other really simple systems you can use to prepare for self-employed maternity leave, join me in BOND — my signature planning experience for expecting business owners.
Warmly,
Aly
