PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi is known for being candid. And she did not disappoint when Fortune sat down with her at the end of August as part of our Most Powerful Women package.
In a wide-ranging interview, Nooyi talked frankly about the Amazon-Whole Foods deal, doing business in the age of Trump, that controversial Kendall Jenner ad, and why consumers are confused about what healthy eating really means.
But the most revealing moments came when Nooyi opened up about herself, especially when it comes to how she manages her life.
In the Q&A that runs online and in the magazine, Nooyi talked about the need for women to learn how to prioritize and compartmentalize. But what didn’t make the cut were details on how she personally uses these strategies.
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Nooyi told Fortune that every day she makes a to-do list of 50 to 60 items, down to very small things. Her list is two columns—one side the personal, the other the professional—that both live on a single page. Tasks that aren’t completed get carried over to the next day, although she tries to keep that down to two to three items. The day she sat down with Fortune, Nooyi hadn’t gotten around to buying a birthday gift for someone, so that got carried over to the next day.
And a strategy that may sound familiar to many of us: Nooyi keeps a notepad next to her bed so if she wakes up in the night and thinks of something she needs to do, she can add it to the list. “Sometimes I understand what I wrote, sometimes I don’t,” she says.
Nooyi said that when she looks back at her life, she realizes that she often had to give up the things she loves to do to make time for everything else. To get around that issue, she suggested “finding little joys” like getting a manicure. But what if you’re too busy? “Just sneak it in,” she said.
