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4 PROVEN Ways to Save 200+ Hours a Year
4 PROVEN Ways to Save 200+ Hours a Year
-How to Create More Time & Financial Freedom
What follows are 4 ways to save at least 200 hours a year of your time. What would you rather be doing with that time? Say you work a 50-hour workweek like most Americans do. How would you like to spend 4 more weeks a year with your family, traveling or doing more of what you love? Read on to discover ways to work less...
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WAY #1
12 Minutes That Will Change Your Life
A simple delegation tactic to save you hours.
Delegation. You’ve heard it, maybe struggled with it but know it’s powerful if you embrace it. Admittedly, learning how to delegate effectively is not something learned overnight. If you are good at what you do, you’ve likely mastered your craft and have found some ways to be good at other areas of your business. Learning to let go – and the fear of losing control – is real for many entrepreneurs. Delegation takes practice, refinement, and updating. But you have to start!
I dive into a detailed example of delegating a simple 12-minute task like the financials of your business. Say you’ve got this down to a science and can quickly review any invoices or receipts, reconcile and more - all within 12 minutes a day. Not bad at all! So why would you take time to train someone else to do this?
I call it the 10x rule. Plan for 10 times the amount of time it takes you on a task to thoroughly train someone else to do it. In this case, 2 full hours to train on a 12 minute task. You clearly define the process, create an SOP, give them the tools maybe even train them by video tutorial. Now they have mastered this task and taken it off your plate - for good. You get 12 minutes of your life back each day - 1 extra hour a week. That’s over 500 hours for the next decade!
And the great part - money savings too. In this example above - again, I go into much more detail and give step by step delegation instructions HERE - I trained a VA to do this task. She was proficient in English with a Master’s equivalent in education, lived well in the Philippines and charged just $5/hr. Financially, my time was worth about $200/hr at the time. By saving 50 hours a year I also saved $9,750 that year as well!
In my FREEDOM Business System™, I dive deep with my clients into delegation and uncover at least a dozen routine tasks in both professional and personal life. From step by step tutorials, practical resources and tools I’ll get you on a path to work less and make more. Once an entrepreneur masters delegation, the sky’s the limit to more freedom in your life.
DO THIS: Take a look at your daily and weekly tasks. What are some mundane tasks that you’d rather not do anymore? Managing your calendar? Creating reservations? Email management? Social media marketing and management? Website responsibilities? Travel arrangements? The list is endless. You likely have many small tasks you can delegate. When put together, you’ll realize many hours saved each week - hundreds of hours of the course of the year!
WAY #2A Secret Weapon of Saving Time
Dictation; how voice to text is 7 times faster than typing.
The average American spends 28% of their workweek on email. Studies show an average white-collar worker spends at least 13 hours a week typing. 13 hours! Want to give your fingers a break? Enter dictation.
In numerous studies, it's been shown that speaking is 7 times faster than typing. Tired of typing your messages and ready to spend 1/7 of your time on it? Speak your messages instead of typing them.
As I create content and work on blogs, courses and a book, I’m constantly writing and typing. Years ago I decided to give dictation a try to see what all the hype is about. Of course, I did an A/B split test. So, I timed myself on a simple blog post typing on my computer compared to going on a walk and dictating another blog post on my phone.
Aside from the extra benefits of burning a few extra calories and logging a couple of thousand steps too, I was amazed. The 1,000-word blog post I typed and labored on took nearly 2 hours. Another 1,000-word post when dictated on my walk took just 20 minutes - including some editing. I was in the zone and the words were flowing as I was free to simply think and talk.
Although dictating may take some time to get used to, it’s benefits and time savings far outweigh any hassle. If you’re about 7 times faster speaking than typing then your average 13 hours a week on email will drop to just 2!
DO THIS: Begin using the dictation tools of speech to text already available to you on your phone and computer. Want to up your game? Some popular and highly effective dictation tools include: Dictation.io and Dragon among other lesser competitors.
WAY#3Master This Productivity Hack
Why You Should Definitely Use TextExpander Tools
Did you know that the average American spends 13 hours a week typing emails? Would it be surprising to learn the average American sends and receives 658 text messages per week? The average American spends 55 minutes a day texting. That’s 20 hours per week of your time! (And we think our kids have screen-time issues!)
All that typing, swiping and finger pecking time could be better used elsewhere for a productive, fulfilling life. Want to cut down on this time with some easy hacks? Enter text expanders.
Also called snippets by the software geeks, text expanders allow you to create a formula for often-used phrases or information you’re used to typing. Think: phone number, email addresses, websites, directions, message, greetings, etc. For example, someone texts asking for your email address. Instead of typing out christopherchristopherson@thisismyemailaddress.com each time, create a formula like “email;” = “my email address”. Once you type “email;” - the text expander will automatically input the actual email address. “cell;” could yield your full cell number. “hbd;” could expand to your routine happy birthday greeting. "Addy;" for your address and so on.
It’s been shown that these snippets and text expanders can shave off hours from your workweek. Small teams have adopted text expanders and have been shown to save 30 hours a week as a result of using this easy time hack. Quit typing and texting so much - go live!
In the FREEDOM Business System™ I help you through the many nuances of dictation and text expander tools. We’ll help you set up dozens - even hundreds in some cases - of the most used phrases so you’ll earn more hours back in your life. Many text expanders offer free versions, but even paid ones amount to less than a cup of coffee. Some of the best to try:
Auto Text Expander for Google Chrome
DO THIS: Download and try one of these text expanders for a month. Create snippets for phrases or information you may type or text often: phone numbers, addresses, directions, greetings, signatures, short messages, email addresses, websites, bio, important numbers, etc.
WAY #4Batching To Focus
How Time-Blocking Affects Your Productivity
What does your normal calendar and workday look like? Emails, phone calls, client meetings, team meetings, big-picture planning, working in the minutia, networking, notifications - they all take up time and can bombard each day. But they shouldn’t be part of every day for the truly focused, highly productive business owner.
In his book, Deep Work, Cal Newport researched and explained the superior advantages of batching, also called time-blocking. Batching refers to doing one task at a time, free from distractions of other tasks and focused deeply about the topic at hand. An example could be email. In contrast to multitasking, you would set aside a specific amount of time to only do email and have your inbox open solely - phones are off and no other browser windows open. Whether you need 15 or 90 minutes, you would focus on getting through your email inbox, then close it down and move on to the next task.
In true deep work, that could look like writing hours of content that you normally would space throughout the week into a big chunk of time one afternoon just once a week. Your mind is free to then focus on other important projects for the remainder of the week, then get back to writing the following week during your deep work session.
Distraction-free time allows the mind to concentrate at the sole task at hand. I’ve used this in my own workweek to devote deep time to content creation for a few hours in weekly chunks. Then other parts of my day I have specific email-only time and certain chunks of my week are for client-focused phone calls where I plan them all together in specific afternoons. You are training your mind to stay focused on this particular task and pull all its resources and historical data in your brain to make that the most effective time. You truly get more done in less time while you batch.
It’s been shown that multitasking - switching endlessly from task to task with no boundaries - actually wastes more time. The impact of task switching is surprising. The residue of going from one task to the next leaves our brain playing catch-up. Going from phone calls to research, to sales calls to email leaves minutes in between each to “get used to” the new task. Opening up the right software, preparing and more will actually cause minutes to go by that are unproductive.
In many studies, it’s been shown that we actually waste around 2 hours a day by time switching or multitasking. That’s about a quarter of your workday! Studies show millennials task switch 27 times an hour. Reduce this one area to save up to hundreds of hours each year alone!
Want to get hours back each week? Batch your work. In the FREEDOM Business System™, we go deep and wide on batching and may help rearrange your calendar to play only to your strengths so that more freedom is realized in your life.
DO THIS: Choose certain time blocks on your calendar. Set aside only certain times each day to check and respond to email. Create calendar events with yourself to batch certain tasks together that you’d normally spread throughout the week. Consider: outgoing sales calls, meetings, content creation, checking social media, marketing, etc.
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Have questions? Give up and want this and more done for you and your team? Connect to chat and learn more about the FREEDOM Business System™ and other opportunities to work together.
