One of the main reasons to break your dependency on your paycheck is to stop trading your time for money and instead focus on the things that are most important to you and bring the most value to you, your family, and, more broadly, the world in general.
One way to get to the desired end state is to wait until you have saved up all the money you will ever need, then stop working and start spending time elsewhere. This approach is what happens when you retire from your job – you cease work and now have to fill your time elsewhere. It can also happen if you build up a business then sell it or otherwise come into a large windfall.
In the book “Buy Back Your Time” [2], Dan Martell presents a different, more incremental strategy for arriving at your ideal life. While the book is targeted towards entrepreneurs and business owners, the approach and lessons are applicable to anyone.
At its most basic, the approach is to figure out the small number of things that are your best use of time – the activities that you like to do and that are high value – and, over time, pay other people to do everything else. You likely already employee this strategy in parts of your life, for example when you hire a house cleaner, have someone else mow your lawn, or eat out at a restaurant.
The book describes how to be more intentional about these investments. It is also very clear that the point of buying back your time isn’t to sit on a beach 16 hours a day, 7 days a week – it is to have more time to invest in the small number of activities that you are uniquely qualified to do, you truly enjoy, and have the most impact.
Some of my key takeaways from the book:
- Hire to buy back your time. There is a lot of talk online about hiring people as you scale your business or when you become too busy to do everything yourself. Dan recommends being more proactive and intentional. Instead of hiring for random tasks that need to be done, and waiting until you are overwhelmed, constantly look for people who can free up your time so you can reinvest it using the audit, transfer, fill (ATF) method. ATF requires you to answer 3 straightforward questions: What tasks do I hate doing that are easy and inexpensive to offer someone else? (Audit) Who do I have on my team-or who can I hire, even part-time-to take these over? (Transfer) What tasks should I focus on that I love doing that can immediately bring more value? (Fill). Using the ATF method becomes easier once you figure out how you are spending your time now, so….
- Allocate every task you do into 1 of 4 quadrants based on their impact and the enjoyment they bring you. Tasks that are simple to do and you don’t like to do go into the Delegate quadrant, tasks that are complicated and you don’t like to do go into Replace. There are tasks that don’t provide immediate returns but are things you enjoy doing and provide longer term value in your life – like building relationships, learning new skills, working on a hobby, exercising, and spending time with family. These are considered to be Investments in yourself and your future. Finally, there are the tasks that you like to do, are good at, and are high-value, which fall into the Production quadrant. Get rid of the Delegation tasks as soon as possible, then eliminate your time on the Replacement tasks. Ultimately, you should be spending almost all of your time on Production tasks, with the remaining time on the Investment tasks which help you recharge, think deeply, and improve yourself and your relationships.
- No-one will care as much as you do, and that’s ok. One of the common barriers to hiring someone else is that they won’t do as good a job as you will. If you can get the job done 80% as well as you would do it yourself, you are winning because you are freeing up your time to focus on higher value work. Dan’s assertion is that “no one-not a founder, not an administrative assistant, not a baseball player, not a barista-should be performing a work task that they could outsource for one-fourth (i.e., 25 percent) of their current effective hourly rate.” I like that approach because it gives you a metric that you can use to determine when you need to outsource a task and when you should probably keep it on your plate (at least for the moment).
- Make the process of buying back your time part of your systems / habits. This approach works best when consistently applied. This isn’t something that you do once then forget. Constantly be looking at where you are spending your time doing things that can be delegated to others so that you can be increasing the time spent in your personal sweet spot.
If you have any questions or comment about this post, please email them to me at blog@mbc-rei.com, I will reply to the questions that are straightforward and will turn the questions requiring more detailed answers into future blog posts.
For additional reading:
This article is my opinion only, it is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Always do your own research and due diligence. Always consult your lawyer for legal advice, CPA for tax advice, and financial advisor for financial advice.