By normal day I mean a day where he doesn’t have any important meeting with other heads of countries, international events, celebrations, or special events.
In: Other
All of those things ARE part of the average day for a head of anything important.
Maybe not foreign heads of state specifically, but meeting with other people in charge of their own important things both for networking and ensuring that multiple different branches are working together well, reading and signing off on reports from the bureaucracy set up to sort and process complex problems before they get to them, setting objectives for their staff to work in the direction of.
Basically, their job is to be the public face of the government, be responsible for 12 million different decisions, and set the direction of what they’re doing
It’s not that dissimilar to CEOs of major companies. You’d be signing documents, approving matters, discussing stuff with cabinet members, etc.
The [POTUS daily schedules](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/21stcenturygov/tools/schedule) are mostly in the public record, so those are a great resource if you want to learn more about the day-in-the-life minutiae of actual leaders. Journalists have often tried to compare the daily schedules of different leaders too, which can be interesting: [https://rollcall.com/2024/07/12/trumps-presidential-office-hours-were-the-shortest-since-fdr-bidens-not-far-behind-him/](Trumps presidential office hours were the shortest since FDR)
It should be noted that in most countries there are actually two offices the “Head of State” and the “Head of Government”.
Only a few countries like the US have them combined into own office.
The head of state is either the ruling monarch or some office like President.
The head of government is often called names like Prime Minister, Premier or Chancellor.
The exact distribution of powers and responsibilities between the two varies a lot from place to place.
Usually and generally (but not always) the Head of State is the one who has all the power in theory, but in practice acts more like a figurehead and elder statesman while the Head of government does all the actual work of doing the politics of governing.
The actual schedule of such officials is usually available online.
For example the Schedule for Joe Biden for today is:
* Friday, September 6 2024
* 10:00 AM
* Closed Press
* The President receives the President’s Daily Brief
* 11:30 AM
* Joint Base Andrews Overhang
* Out-of-Town Pool
* Out-of-Town Pool Call Time
* 12:20 PM
* South Lawn
* Open Press
* The President departs the White House en route to Joint Base Andrews
* 12:40 PM
* Joint Base Andrews
* Out-of-Town Pool
* The President departs Joint Base Andrews en route to Detroit, Michigan
* 2:10 PM
* Open Press
* The President arrives in Detroit, Michigan
* 3:15 PM
* Open Press
* The President will deliver remarks discussing how his Investing in America agenda is benefiting communities across Michigan and ensuring Americans have a brighter, more prosperous future
* 4:40 PM
* Out-of-Town Pool
* The President departs Ann Arbor, Michigan en route to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
* 6:25 PM
* Philadelphia International Airport
* Out-of-Town Pool
* The President arrives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
* 6:35 PM
* Philadelphia International Airport
* Out-of-Town Pool
* The President departs Philadelphia, Pennsylvania en route to Wilmington, Delaware
* 6:50 PM
* Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su will gaggle aboard Air Force One en route to Ann Arbor, Michigan
* The President arrives in Wilmington, Delaware
It depends largely on how lawmaking is set up.
They might be the overseer of a legislative body, have the final word on whether bills are signed into law, create laws. In the US, the Vice President conducts the lawmaking process, while the president signs or rejects the final form of laws (but can be overridden)
It also depends on how policing and military is set up. The head-of-state may have the entire military and country policing under them, able to declare war and enforce the laws. This is the US president and the executive branch, under which almost all of enforcement lies, such as FBI, CIA, US Marshalls, postal inspectors, regulatory agencies…
Then they might be in charge of the budgeting of the government, how to tax and disperse funds.
Much of this power has been delegated to long-lasting government institutions under the purvey of the head of a country.
Then there is diplomacy, appointing ambassadors, embassies and consulates, and negotiating inter-state treaties and agreements.
France is different from Venezuela is different from Botswana…
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