Visa group president Oliver Jenkyn told Business Insider he thinks about his schedule like a Mason jar filled with big rocks, small pebbles, and sand.
In his analogy, the big rocks represent the complex problems that Visa needs to solve, such as rolling out a new global program. The pebbles are the less complicated tasks, he said, such as pricing approvals. The sand is the “small stuff,” like replying to emails, Jenkyn said.
If you fill the Mason jar with sand first, there’s no space left for the big rocks, Jenkyn said. So if he has to take a B+ on anything, it can’t be on the big rocks — and he plans to keep prioritizing his most important agenda items, even if that means scoring lower on the small stuff.
Jenkyn, who is responsible for Visa’s business in the 200+ countries and territories in which it operates globally, said he gets feedback in his performance review that he didn’t respond to emails fast enough or didn’t attend summer internship sessions.
“I’m like, ‘yeah, by the way, just cut and paste that into next year’s performance review, as well,'” Jenkyn said.
Prioritizing learning
The finance executive said that one of his non-negotiable “big rocks” involves four hours of weekly learning on a topic he wants to understand. It’s the first item he adds to his rolling 18-month calendar every week, he said, and he typically schedules it on a Friday morning around 5:30 a.m., when he feels his “freshest” and when he can avoid interrupting calls, emails, or texts.
“I put that time in as a block, and no one can touch it. It’s really as simple as that,” Jenkyn said.
The key, he said, is resisting the urge to slip into other work during that time — or to trick yourself into making work-related decisions on a new concept. Whatever topic he picks has to be something he “really, really, genuinely cannot understand,” Jenkyn said.
Jenkyn chooses the weekly topic from a lengthy “think” section on his to-do list of concepts he doesn’t understand, that directly or indirectly impact Visa and its clients.
Jenkyn said past subjects have included the Millennium Prize problems, the history of important companies and how they pivoted during critical moments, a deep dive into the technology of stablecoins, and the history of the semiconductor industry.
By spending focused time on these topics, the executive said he eventually reaches the point where he can “sit in front of anyone in the world and talk about it.” Stablecoins, for instance, became one of the key themes highlighted in his 2026 payment predictions.
Jenkyn said the weekly habit dates back to his days at McKinsey, where he was a partner until 2009. The executive recounted an offsite, where the worldwide managing director told employees that clients pay them to “solve their hardest problems,” so they needed to carve out time to think about them.
The idea wasn’t to use that time to build slides or do busy work, but to just think. Jenkyn said the managing director suggested spending more than four hours weekly on this, but that’s what he stuck with.
While there are some weeks he does more or less deep thinking, Jenkyn said he strives to consistently put in the four hours weekly. He compared the habit to working out.
“You know when you’re skipping leg day,” Jenkyn said.
Developing adaptability
For Jenkyn, the four hours reflect a larger commitment to promote a culture of continuous learning. It also lines up with what he looks for in prospective hires at the credit card giant. The finance executive said he seeks out curious candidates with a “rigorous problem-solving capability.”
“If people aren’t willing to do that — not because they’re getting forced to, because they want to do this, it’s their personality — they’re just not going to work in our company,” Jenkyn said about dedicating four hours a week to learning new concepts.
The executive, who has been at Visa for just over 16 years, said that it may feel like a luxury to block off four hours to learn, but it’s not. He said the skills that make people successful today will be “obsolete” in the next three to five years, so developing adaptability and a culture of learning is critical.
Jenkyn said the four hours of weekly learning have been a “game changer” in his career over time, and the “only reason” he has the job he has at Visa.
“It’s a necessity. Otherwise, you’re just not going to be that relevant,” Jenkyn said.
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