How I Manage My Time (as an Entrepreneur)

The Nugget

  • Understand that success as an entrepreneur doesn't require working harder; you can achieve more by mastering time management principles like auditing, delegating, and focusing on what truly energizes you.
  • This approach can help overcome the pain line where business growth often leads to stress and burnout.

Make it stick

  • 🔄 Audit, Transfer, Fill: Regularly assess your tasks, delegate low-value work, and focus on high-impact activities that energize you.
  • 💡 Drip Matrix Insight: Focus on tasks that light you up and make money; avoid tasks that drain your energy without substantial returns.
  • 📈 Three Trades: Understand trading time for money (Employee) vs. trading money for time (Entrepreneur) vs. using money to generate more money (Empire Builder).
  • 🎯 Definition of Done (DOD): Clearly state what success looks like in any task—metrics, feelings, and functionality.

Key insights

The Pain Line

  • As businesses scale, entrepreneurs hit a pain line marked by stress and burnout.
  • When faced with this pain, they can:
    1. Sell: Divest from ventures that drain passion.
    2. Sabotage: Engage in distractions that stall growth.
    3. Stall: Consciously decide against scaling, which can lead to stagnation.

Buyback Loop

  • The Buyback Loop consists of:
    1. Audit: Identify low-value tasks.
    2. Transfer: Delegate these tasks to someone else.
    3. Fill: Engage in activities that are fulfilling and profitable.

The Drip Matrix

  • A 2x2 Framework for evaluating tasks:
    • X-axis: Lights you up (Yes/No)
    • Y-axis: Makes money (Yes/No)
    • Goal: Operate in areas that both energize you and profit.

The Three Levels of Trading

  1. Level 1: Trade Time for Money (Employee).
  2. Level 2: Trade Money for Time (Entrepreneur).
  3. Level 3: Trade Money for More Money (Empire Builder).

Effective Delegation Strategies

  • Get an Assistant: Vital for managing administrative tasks, freeing up your time.
  • 10810 Rule: Involve yourself in 10% ideation, let the team execute 80%, then add your touch in the final 10%.
  • Clear Definitions: Use a Definition of Done to specify what completing a task means, covering metrics, feelings, and intended outcomes.

Key quotes

  • "Successful people aren't doing what they love because they're rich. They're rich because they've learned to do what they love."
  • "Audit, transfer, fill—not just once, but continually."
  • "Enjoyment is efficiency; when you enjoy what you do, you're exponentially more effective."
  • "A definition of done includes facts, feelings, and functionality."
  • "Eighty percent done by someone else is 100% awesome."
This summary contains AI-generated information and may have important inaccuracies or omissions.