I loved this article by Ramit Sethi. I’ve been working for myself for nearly 7 years now, and it’s always a challenge to make sure I’m spending my time on the most-important things, and not doing stuff just because I can.
There are three roles in which I am always trying to find the things that only I can do: (1) as the owner of my business; (2) as a dad; and (3) as a husband.
In these areas, there are things that only I can offer and do, and which I️ do best. I love finding ways to focus on those areas.
Without a doubt, the biggest thing I’ve done to buy back my time was to hire a full-time production assistant: Isaac. I hired Isaac two years ago, and by delegating to him I got back about 50+ hours of my life every week.
Isaac works only 35-40 hours, but I got back more than that because I was working far less efficiently than he does.
Something else that has been helpful for me was hiring a bookkeeper.
I used to spend roughly 4 hours per week — every Sunday afternoon — on my books. Now I have all day Sunday to spend with my boys, help my wife around the house, and more.
What’s funny though, is that it was easier for me to hire Isaac than it was for me to hire Joy, my bookkeeper. Joy is not full-time, and the books are something that I could still do without too much stress or time. And so it didn’t seem as obvious to me that it was something I should have been delegating.