Your Time

Your time is more precious than money. You will have the opportunity to make more money. You cannot make more time.

Understand the value of your time. The more successful you become the greater the more valuable your time becomes. This means your time value is a moving target. If you are just out of school you probably clean your own house. At some point it makes sense to hire someone else to do it. Revisit this valuation at least twice a year by evaluating your tasks and determining which should continue to be done by you, and which can be outsourced to others.

Choosing your tasks

The easy part of deciding what you do yourself is looking at the financials behind them. If you know it will take you two hours a week to maintain your swimming pool and you value your time at $100 per hour, look at what you will pay someone else to do it. if it’s less than your value, hire them. In this case, if you can pay a pool service $75 per week, hire them.

Therapeutic activities

There are tasks that we find therapeutic. Some people enjoy doing yard work. They get into a meditative state while they do it and gain a sense of pride and accomplishment once they’ve finished. These activities fall outside the financial equation. You just don’t want them to interfere with things that are truly important.

Important activities

If your child plays tennis and the two of you go out and hit balls on the weekend, this is an important activity. It’s a chance to spend quality time with your child. As my children grow I am learning how important it is to savor those moments while you have them. As they become more independent those opportunities are more difficult to get. It’s also important to make time for yourself to ensure you are stimulated mentally and physically. Taking personal time away from the office is important. It helps us stay balanced and the separation helps to provide a renewed perspective. I’m on my road bike several times a week. Some of my best ideas for my business come to me as I’m riding. The primary reason I ride is to maintain my fitness. The mental clarity and idea generation are a bonus. In the end biking becomes a very productive use of my time

Goal of Every Business Owner

Find People that are as good or better than you at every task. Provide them the autonomy to thrive. Now you have the operations component of your business covered. This allows you to get out of the day-to-day issues and assume a strategic role. Just be sure you maintain a connection to the critical aspects of the business, the money, key customers, and employee dynamics. I’ve seen many business owners take this too far. They get comfortable and allow the business to go on autopilot. People that begin as good employees don’t always stay that way. They find ways to justify doing bad things. It’s great to have the right people in the right places but a good leader will maintain a healthy state of paranoia such that he stays involved just enough to know that his people are working in the best interest of the business.

As people knowingly face their final days, they never wish they had spent more hours in the office. They rarely wish for money. The one thing they truly crave is more time. Cherish your time.