Hey everyone,
I was going to write this email to the $100k In 100 Days Mastermind, but realized this is a great topic for you, too.
When I sit down to write this newsletter, I'm writing to myself. Sometimes I write to Past Tim. Sometimes it's Future Tim. This one is for Past, Present and Future. This is the stuff I say to myself.
I say it to you because I want you to succeed. So...
I'm going to be direct with you because that's what you need right now.
I keep hearing "I don't have time."
In 16 years of coaching entrepreneurs, I've heard this excuse from nearly every client and mastermind member I've ever worked with.
And it's almost never true.
Let's get a dose of reality... some objectivity if you will.
You have time.
You've got 24 hours just like me and just like the laziest person on Earth and just like the most productive.
We all have responsibilities, fires to put out, teams to manage, and a million things screaming for our attention.
And that's just in our business. Personal lives? Kids, chores, cooking and sometimes finding time to sleep.
When it comes to getting shit done, the difference is choice, not time.
When you say "I don't have time to work on my marketing strategy," what you're really saying is "Marketing strategy is less important to me right now than everything else I'm doing."
And you know what? That might be the right call. Maybe client deliverables ARE more important this week. Maybe that emergency really does need your attention first.
But own that decision.
I'm a huge stickler for semantics. Ask any of my coaching clients. I annoy the crap out of them when I ask if they really mean the words they just said. When you have a thought, you immediately put it into words. Those words then inform what you believe about what you just said.
Your brain then turns "I don't have time" into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Also, it gives away your agency. You have willpower. Use it.
Stop hiding behind "I don't have time" like time is some external force acting upon you. You're the CEO of your life and business. You decide where your time goes.
Now, I'm not naive. There ARE times when reprioritization won't help. Times when you genuinely have more work than one human can handle. That's when you need to leverage other people's time through hiring or delegation.
But how do you know the difference?
That's where the Leadership Task Filter comes in. (Page 22 of the Leader Guide.)
Here's what gets me excited about this tool, and what should get YOU fired up about owning your time.
What if you could:
- Actually work on the strategy that would 3x your revenue
- Finally launch that project you've been saying is "important" for the last six months
- Take the vacation you've been "too busy" for
- Show up to your kid's game without your phone buzzing every five minutes
- Have dinner with your spouse without checking Slack
- Build the business so you can actually live the lifestyle you WANT to live
That's what this filter reveals. It shows you exactly where your time is going and, more importantly, where it SHOULD be going so you can accomplish your actual goals.
Here's how it works:
- List everything you're actually doing
- Score each task:
- 1 = Only you should do this
- 2 = You're doing it, but someone else in your company should be
- 3 = You're doing it because there isn't anyone in the company to do it
- 4 = Nobody should be doing this
Once you know what to keep in the company and who should be doing it, determine if it can be Systematized (S)or Automated (A)
Your 2s? Those need to be delegated NOW. These are hours you're stealing from yourself every single week.
Your 3s? These are your future hires. When you see how many hours you're spending here, you'll KNOW it's time to bring someone on. This is where you turn a 60-hour work week into a 40-hour one. You keep working the filter and you can accomplish more in 12 to 20 hours than you've been doing with 2 weeks.
Your 4s? Kill them. Seriously. Stop doing work that doesn't need to be done. This is free time you're giving away for nothing.
Your 1s? These are the CEO-level activities that deserve your time. The stuff that actually moves the needle AND the stuff that gives you life outside of work.
My clients who do this gain an average of 10 hours per week within a year.
Ten hours on average. It comes from getting clarity about what actually deserves your time.
What would you DO with an extra 10 hours a week? What's been sitting on your "I'll get around to it" list?
This week's challenge:
Do the Leadership Task Filter. Spend one hour on it.
Then reply to this email with:
- One thing you're going to STOP saying you don't have time for
- What you're actually going to say instead (e.g., "Marketing isn't my top priority this month because...")
- One task you discovered is a 2, 3, or 4 that you're going to handle differently
Stop making excuses. Start making time for what needs to get done.
Tim
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