How to buy or build more time
There’s an artwork on my office wall that states the blindingly obvious, in a reassuringly artistic script.
More Ideas Than Time.
It was true when it hopped into my Etsy shopping basket more than 10 years ago. And it’s still true today.
I have an abundance of ideas (occasionally good ones and many best forgotten) every single day. I’m sure you do too. But we both only have 24 finite hours to get stuff done. And there’s other things to do in those precious hours – like sleep, cook, eat, stay healthy, take care of family and friends, read, learn, and play.
No matter how realistic I try to make my daily to do list, it will never, ever, be fully done. Accepting this truth is liberating in its own way: I now subscribe to Oliver Burkeman’s approach of treating a to do list as a menu of choices. What if you got to pick the things you took care of in any given day, rather than having to devour them all?
However, when you’re running your own business there are consequences if you don’t get certain things done. So if you are feeling overwhelmed by that menu of tasks – and have more ideas than time – there are really only two solutions.
You can either build more time. Or buy more time.
Build more time with processes
Whether you’re a writer, designer, coach or adviser, what you sell is your time. Everything you create for a client takes a certain number of minutes, hours, or days. To grow your revenue beyond the number of minutes, hours or days you choose to work, you need to make each step a tiny bit faster.
Think about these three types of systems and processes:
1. How you manage time.
Use timesheets to keep yourself accountable, block out chunks of focus billable time in your calendar, or use meeting scheduling tools to reduce the number of back and forth emails – and limit unnecessary interruptions.
2. How you stop reinventing the wheel
Document every regular, repeatable task with cheat sheets, templates, checklists, swipe files, automated responses, client survey questions, and internal policies.
3. How you improve the worth of your work.
Capture the intellectual property inside your head. Think strategic frameworks, workshop slide templates, or video tutorials.
The catch? You’ll need to invest time to create more time. Try setting aside 30 minutes a day to document something useful.
Here’s one cheat sheet I created just for you: the 3 questions you need to ask in any client brief.
Sign up to the Beyond Solo VIP waitlist for more tools like this.
Buy more time with people
Need a faster busy-ness fix? You can buy time by outsourcing tasks on your to do list – or hiring someone to do the menu item you choose not to do.
Outsourcing can be a more flexible way to share the load, and get the expertise you need. You can get a fresh perspective on any given challenge. But you have less control over that person’s time and the quality of their work, and it can be risky to outsource client-facing tasks.
Hiring someone into your business – whether they’re a casual or full-time employee – is a serious commitment, but that commitment goes both ways. It can also send a positive signal to clients that your business is stable and mature.
The catch on both counts is the additional expense. Work out the potential return on that investment: how much more can you make by sharing the load?
Remember, the quality of your work – and your client experience – depends on the people you bring into your business. There’s more than one way to grow your business, and it doesn’t have to involve managing other people.
We’ll dive deep into all your options in Beyond Solo. Join the waitlist now, to be first to read it – and get more practical templates you can put to work right away.
