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www .businessabundance .online Hello and welcome
back to the business abundance podcast Today,
we're going to be chatting about freeing up time.
And so this is just focusing on best practices
for your business so that you can focus on business
growth. Time. We don't have it. We can make it.
Cool. If you think it's a priority, then time
for you to focus on it. But we've talked about
micromanaging in a number of different podcasts.
So if you want to focus more on, if you're a
micro manager, go listen to those. But here we're
going to be talking about just best practices
when it comes to your systems or your processes,
what your team's doing, tasks you can get rid
of. So like payroll, you can pass that on to
the people in charge of your finances or graphic
design can be passed on to a freelancer or. not
paid advertisement, but Upwork or Fiverr, those
things you don't have to do, or you can find
a faster way to do it by getting a template.
But yeah, there's a lot of different things that
you can do to free up your time at the moment.
And there's a lot of resources. Some people might
be opposed to AI, but AI does make things a bit
faster if you use it correctly. Yeah, in saying
that, don't just get it to write everything for
you. Do use your brain, but that's a good way
to... Oh dear. Make things a bit faster. If you
don't want American spelling on all of your advertising.
Yes, that's true. But it does say on, I use AI
to get a framework sometimes if I put in the
prompts and be like, create a framework. And
I remember when we're testing it out and we're
doing social media posts and it was just producing.
Like a sales pitch, like a really nasty sales
pitch. Lots of emoticons. Lots of emojis. Emojis
are good though, I like the emojis. Yeah. Posts
with emojis are way better than posts without.
Those look good. That's interesting. See, I never
trust a post with an emoji. Yeah, but because
you know where they're coming from now. But if
you just have a post that's playing with nothing,
no photo, it's like, it's just too text heavy.
I don't know what the data says. Well, since
this is an AI, I would say it says it performs
better. Yep. If you ask ChatGPT if it's true,
it will tell you if it's not. Anyway, getting
more free time. Why would we want to get more
free time? How would you know like you actually
need more free time? If you're missing meetings,
if you're late for meetings, if you're always
late for things, you're not prepared for things,
you miss meals, cancel engagements with friends
and stuff. Not making time for family. Yeah,
can't get to the things you want to get to. Keep
experiencing the same problems. One of those
words that you used in the intro, priorities.
Something my grandmother used to say to me is
you've always got time for what's important to
you. That's what I was trying to say. That's
exactly what I was trying to say. You don't feel
like you've got time for what's important to
you. Well, then re -prioritise. You need help
with time and getting more free time. Yep. That's
right. We've all got the same amount of hours
in a week. Whether we're a billionaire or we're
on the poverty line in the soup kitchen. Same
amount of time. So how do you use it? What are
some tips on freeing up your time. I've mentioned
payroll and graphic design and social media and
those sort of things. Can you think of any others?
What's your role in the business? So are you
doing the things that are specifically your role
in the business? And are they generate, if you're
the owner of the business, for instance, is that
generating income would be one of the first things
I would look at as a small business owner, sole
trader type person. If I'm over here fluffing
about on Farmville when I should be putting quotes
out. Um, is Farmville still with this? Spark
Juve Alley, I don't know. Star Juve Alley. Star
Juve Alley. Young whippersnappers with the new
internet games. Don't start playing because you
won't have any free time. But sometimes that
can be a valuable thing to do as well is to decompress
and just turn your brain off and get your dopamine
hit and make you more productive for the next
day. Everyone's different. That's probably my
point. I think, um, probably the number one thing
to start with is make a not to do list. So just.
all this stuff that most people do that just
don't really need to be done. Like if you refer
to the last podcast, we're talking about data
driven stuff. Um, but you know, doing the things
that actually make sense and some things probably
don't have much of an outcome. So just make a
list of stuff to stop doing. And then you'll
probably find you can stop doing heaps of things.
And that doesn't really matter that much. Maybe
it has an impact, but not that much. So go through
things that you are doing that you don't need
to do and just stop doing them. It's a good way
to get a bit of time back. Yeah. I, um, I was
thinking about this when it came to, uh, some
examples that I've worked with. And when it comes
to processes, you see things like handle customer
complaints and you pass that onto the admin team
and you go, there we go. Just handle the customer
complaints and they go, well, I don't really
know what that looks like. Um, and instead you
want to actually like define. what needs to be
done so that you're not then dealing with the
flow on effects. So for example, handle customer
complaints, they might think they're doing the
right thing and it takes five days for them to
get in contact and those sort of things. And
it drags on and it's in the back of their mind.
It's taking up head space. But if you have on
that process to follow up within 24 hours and
that's done, dealt with, and they can carry on.
So there is, I guess, mental space that comes
with all the tasks you have to do if you make
that don't do list. then you know you don't have
to worry about it and you can do the most important
tasks first. Another thing with doing this is
just maybe make a piece of paper, sit in it for
next year for a week and just have things, just
write down everything that you do. And then you
can put it into columns and say, do we stop doing
it? Do we delegate it to someone? Do we outsource
it somewhere? Or should I do it? And then. you'll
have a list of things that you can get exactly
what you say, get a process together for a little
bit of training for someone, pass it off and
get them away from you. I've had someone I worked
with where I recommended doing that and their
response was, that's just another thing I need
to do, which was interesting. Your own worst
enemy. Yeah. I was like, well, if we're going
to look at the long -term benefits of this, then
it's absolutely something you need to do. But
I feel like when you become swamped with a lot
of work and a lot of unnecessary things and you
haven't started outsourcing, then you become
really focused on what you need to do in order
to survive that day and not the hamster wheel.
Yeah. So you're on the faster it goes. Yep. And
another pushback is, well, then if I'm going
to employ new people, then I have to train those
new people, um, which then takes months of their
time. But if you think in a year's time, uh,
what the benefit would be of actually focusing
on those tasks and employing that new people,
then. The big thing there is if you always do
what you've always done, you always get the same
result. So you've got to have, you've got to
want to change, I guess. So if you don't have
much time, you've got to think, do I just like
being busy? Is this making me feel great? Because
some people are like that. They literally don't
want to go home and they want to be busy. They
want to be busier than their friends and just,
oh, it's 20 hours today. They actually like it.
So if you're one of those people, just don't
listen to this episode. Keep doing what you're
doing. You're doing great. That's the cliche.
That's the difference between rich and wealthy
is rich. You've got heaps of money, but wealthy,
you've got time to do what you want. What is
your priority? Again, I always equate time to
priorities. So if you feel like you haven't got
time, the making the list of what's important
to you, whether it's the, I don't want to be
doing these tasks. I don't want to, I don't want
to be dealing with data today because that's
not what I'm strong with. I'd rather be over
here drawing pretty pictures and sending them
to clients. And that's me every single day. It's
pretty much okay. I just want to do this. I don't
want to look at that website and then it's two
days before the deadline. Now I've got to look
at that website and I hate websites. So now I
feel like I'm time poor because I've let it build
up and I've procrastinated. And then you become
less effective anyway. Exactly. Which is an interesting
point. People that have no time generally get
a bit stressed. Um, and people say they're stressed
and people say they're not stressed, but fundamentally,
if you're too busy, you'll have stress on you.
Um, and it's, it's only ever an effect when there's
straw that breaks camel's back comes along. Um,
but you find if you're doing too many things,
you'll, you'll. become less able to make decisions,
you'll be way less effective in what you do.
So sometimes it makes more sense to do a lot
less and then you can do a lot more. So I always
say to people, take time out to do things with
the family or have your weekend off or finish
work at five or go to the gym in the morning
or whatever it is you need to do. Go take up
a hobby and spend eight hours a week doing it.
And you'll find the rest of things sort of take
care of themselves a lot better than what they
were doing before. Your mindset's better. Yeah,
your health gets better, the stress goes down,
things improve quite a lot. Less of a scarcity
mindset as well. Yeah. If you feel like you've
rushed and you haven't got enough time. And then
when you finish a job, you haven't really put
the effort into finding the next job. And then
it's like, oh my God, where's the next dollar
coming from? I really need to, and then that
creates a vicious cycle of negative mindset,
which can very, very quickly spiral you down
into depression. As a business owner. And a lot
of people are like, oh, we can't just drop things
and leave it like the world will collapse. The
sky will fall. And that's partially true. If
you've got some employees, I think it's just
making sure that they have the ability or the
knowledge that they can make the decision and
what they do generally will be okay. Um, and
we've had cases where people are like, we can't
go on holidays, but then they've had to go for
three weeks because someone's sick or something
like that. Um, and they go away and then they
come back and they're like, Oh, actually. There's
all this stuff's mucked up, but it's still working.
And what has generally happened is that the teams
got better as well. So, and then the challenge
for them is like, Hey, well, well, don't take
things back over. Well, let's do a few corrections
and fix our training and our systems and processes.
But if you take it back over. then you're back
to where you were. So people that have been stuck
doing too much work have then gone away thinking
they couldn't. And when they come back, suddenly
they have more time, just naturally. We had somebody
who took over a business and half of the employees
left, which was apparently under resourced to
start with. And it turned out that just with
all those people going, everyone had to start
doing things themselves, not relying on. people
in certain roles and everyone just got better.
And so there was a lot more time for everyone
it turned out to be. So sometimes just stopping
doing things has the result you want. Would that
be an element of trust there? So trust your team?
Yeah, but it's probably not trust. It's more
just let people do their jobs or give them the
chance to do their jobs. So it's sink or swim.
Yeah. Obviously the better processes and systems
training you have, that's more success. But if
people want to roll, they need to get themselves
there. Trust that they're going to be able to
do the job. Sorry, I was going to say Amazon
had the two pizza rule. That was a good one.
Where your team shouldn't be more than what it
takes to feed with two pizzas. And so then that
means it's a high trust little network of people
that can do their jobs and the decision -making
is decentralised and it's up to them to get the
job done. That seemed to work for Amazon. It's
an extension of what I've talked about with the
Pareto principle before with five seems to be
the magic number for a team because 80 -20, when
you've got five in a team, it still works out
to half of doing most of the work. So you can
start getting bigger than two pizzas. I love
that. I've never heard that. Yeah. Yeah. So that's
interesting. Um, but yeah, if you find time for
your hobbies and, and take up things to reduce
the stress or just do things that you enjoy,
you'll find you have a bit more time. Um, but
then the other things that sort of. clog up headspace,
which is probably the main reason people have
no time, just procrastination and feeling overwhelmed,
slowing them down. Um, whether they think so
or not is just having a good, uh, to -do list
or, you know, project management, something to
keep track of all the tasks, um, and reminders
and who's doing what. So, so what do you do if
you find yourself doing all the tasks you hate
doing in your business? Can we talk about the
system first? Well, yeah, I suppose so. Well,
if you define yourself doing all the tasks that
you don't like doing, then just you need to work
out a plan to stop doing them and give them to
someone else or get another job, either or. That's
pretty straightforward. That's kind of why I
asked the question is because asking you questions,
we get the simple response and sometimes it's
the response that you're like, oh, yeah, well,
that's not what I wanted to hear. There's no,
there's no point doing something you don't like.
Yeah. Um, so yeah, but you'd always just go get
another job if that's the case. And you're not
going to be productive at it if you're not enjoying
it anyway. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to progress
tonight. Um, but anyway, going back to like to
do this and actually having. processes. So, okay,
my team has to do these five things. So then
that's in a system that, that everyone can see
and it's assigned to someone and there's instructions
underneath it of what needs to happen. And there's
notes and updates going through. So if you, you
know, you find yourself, Oh gee, where is that
at? You can actually just go, look, you don't
have to go quiz someone and interrupt their day.
And you can know that it's on track or not, or
you can put something in there and say, Hey,
blah, blah, or there's some more information
or where's this at. Um, but then, you know, simple
things like, um, you've got Microsoft to do,
um, or I think Google, Google notes, tasks, I
can't remember what it's called now. I keep changing
both of them. Oh, and tasks. Yeah. To do tasks,
the same thing. It's just complicated, but, um,
you know, on my phone, I just have the swipe
down and then there's add new task and it goes
into my Microsoft list, which is in my Outlook.
Um, and it's on my phone. It's all the same thing.
And I can just put in there, um, call Z back
or I need to do a budget for someone. So. And
that thing goes on my list without a date or
any other notes. But then when I'm next back
at the computer, it's there and I can add to
it and I can schedule it for somewhere. And what
that means is that pretty much when I have meetings
with people, I can put all my tasks in. It takes
me two minutes. It doesn't take very long. And
then I can't forget about them. And then when
I get an email that I want to go back to later,
instead of deleting all my emails and make sure
my inbox is not even tidy, I can just literally
flag it on the side. There's a little flag button
and that goes through my to -do list too. Say
it's done, it's gone. So I don't see it anymore.
But what that means is I'm not worrying at night
going, gee, what have I not done? Oh gee, I need
to do that. Yeah. Which most people find themselves
doing. I just need to rock up in the morning
and go, what am I doing? Yep. Um, that's what
I'm doing. Well, I can't do that today. Okay.
I'll send them a message and, and say, sorry,
I'm going to be late. And that management, a
little bit of work, probably five, 10 minutes
a day. saves me so much of just worrying about
things on the weekend or doing this or doing
that, or just not getting things done, which
then is inefficient as well. So then when you
do take that time for family or friends or sport
or hobbies or whatever, you can actually be present.
Yeah. And if you think of something when you're
out and about, it's like, oh gee, I forgot that.
Just chuck it in your phone and it's there for
Monday. This is one of the beautiful things about
having a phone with notes, even just your simple
notepad. I find because I work in a creative
realm, There are times in the middle of the night
where you wake up and you're like, that's a really
good idea. I need to, I'll remember that in the
morning. It's all good. And then you wake up
in the morning. Huh? Yeah, I had a good idea.
I don't remember what that was. Whereas now we've
got the technology. You could have easily put
a pen and paper beside your bed and no one ever
does. And I never did. But having the phone right
there, just go bang, take a quick note out of
sight, out of mind. Read back the night and go,
well, was I even thinking that's a terrible idea
or let's expand that. More time management, just
tips and tricks. So talking about priorities,
time as a resource, you know, so much of it.
So it's doing the things that matter the most,
but do the big things first. So make sure you
know what the big things are for the day that
you do need to get done that will have an impact
and will cause trouble or have an outcome and
do those first. Um, because if you start doing
all the small things in the morning, you'll have
small things all day, but you'll never end. But
if you've got three big things, get those done,
work through that. And then you'll have time
for the little things around it. No problem at
all. And I think there's a story with the jar,
the stories. With the rocks and then you put
the sand around it. Yeah. So, you know, if you
fill a jar with big rocks, it's full, right?
No. You put some gravel in there and then it's
full. You put sand in there. Then it's full and
then you could, you know, you pour coffee in
there because there's always time for coffee
with bread. Um, but that's the point. Like you
can keep filling up with little things, but if
you just pour the coffee in first, um, you don't
have room, um, you know, chuck a big rock in
all the coffee pours out. So coffee can fill
it up, um, with a small task pretty quick. The
last thing you want is a big task getting in
the way of the coffee. Yeah. And at the end of
the day, when you've done a couple of big tasks
that, you know, sometimes I'm glad my wife, she
asked me, Oh, how was your day? I'm like, no
good. How was it? Did you get things done? I'm
like, I got a lot of stuff done, but it's not
a matter. And, you know, I'm really happy if
I do one thing that has good outcome and I'll
do nothing else that day. That's great. Um, but
if you do a hundred things, it just didn't really
matter that you had to do anyway. Well, it's
doesn't feel good. It's not good. Um, so I think
making sure, you know, what the priorities for
the day, the big stuff and getting those done,
you'll just, you'll feel better. You'll get the
dopamine of, yeah, I did something and you'll
be rearing to go the next day. So while the initial,
uh, process of trying to free up your time might
actually take more time, ironically. Unless you
just stop doing stuff. Unless you stop doing
stuff. Or just hand it off. Like if you're listening
to this and you realise that you don't actually
need to be doing payroll and you don't need to
be doing the graphic design and you're just going
to hire someone this afternoon, then you don't
have to worry about it next week. Next week's
going to be a lot easier for you. So, but if
it comes to actually expanding your team and
you need to hire new people because you don't
have time, then. That is going to take time,
but think about what the long -term benefits
are next year. This time next year, you'll be
a lot freer and you might be able to just take
a massive holiday with your family. Um, but yeah,
just make sure you take the time to figure out
what is sapping your energy and hopefully this
time next week, you'll be feeling a lot freer.
And if in doubt, just remember time's a madman
construct. So it doesn't actually exist. And
on that philosophical note, we'll see you next
time.