Dan Martell is an author, entrepreneur, and award-winning founder of the SaaS Academy, one of the largest coaching companies in the world. His book Buy Back Your Time is a must-read for business owners struggling to achieve work-life balance. In it, he teaches readers how to reclaim control over their schedules and achieve more with less effort.

Key Ideas from the Buy Back Your Time Book

The title of Buy Back Your Time comes from the idea that when your business is in its infancy, the business owner must wear many hats to get everything done. There comes a point at which you must hire employees for most of those tasks to free up your schedule for higher-level work. Enter the “Buyback Principle.”

In Buying Back Your Time,
Dan Martell describes the Buyback Principle: “The little-known secret to reaching the next stage of your business is spending your time on only the tasks that:  a) you excel at, b) you genuinely enjoy, and c) add the highest value (usually in the form of revenue) to your business.

Likely, two to three tasks fit that description. Every other task you’re handling is slowing your growth and sucking the life from you, and you should clear it from your calendar. Yes, someone else should handle about 95 percent of your current work so you can get back to what matters. Don’t hire to grow your business. Hire to buy back your time.”

The goal should be to spend 25% of your income on buying back your time. Every business owner has a buyback rate: their income is divided by 2,080 hours of work per year, divided by four. If you make $150,000 annually, your buyback rate would be 19.2. That means you can afford to allocate $19.20 per hour for employees to tackle the tasks you shouldn’t be working on.

This allows you to be more productive. Making the most of your time will increase your income and the number of hours you can spend doing things you enjoy.

The first step in regaining your time is identifying which tasks drain you the most. To do this, Martell categorizes your tasks using the DRIP criteria.

• Delegation: Any low-earning, low-energy tasks should be delegated quickly. This includes tasks like managing your calendar and other admin work that someone else could easily take over without much skill or specialization.
• Replacement: Low-energy but high-earning tasks are essential, so you should aim to replace yourself by hiring someone of your skill level or better. These might include marketing, sales, or social media work.
• Investment: Tasks that are low-earning but high-energy include things that make you feel fulfilled but might not be essential and/or urgent daily. You should aim to invest some time in these tasks but not the bulk of your day.
• Production: High-earning, high-energy tasks are known as the “money makers.” These are the tasks you should spend most of your time doing. Ideally, these are tasks that only you, as the business owner, can do.

Every business leader must learn to use time wisely. Over the years, I have written many articles on this subject. Sign up for my email list to receive weekly business and leadership articles delivered to your inbox so you can start making time for what matters.

Coach Dave