What I learned from "Buy Back Your Time"

As a sole practitioner in the legal field, I've been on a journey to not only refine my practice but to reclaim my time. I don't want to simply work for my law firm; I want my firm to work for me. Rather than going the traditional route of growing my firm through multiple associates (and ever-increasing overhead), I have been on a quest to expand my impact and revenue over time without significantly expanding the size of my firm.

My latest resource in support of this mission is Dan Martell in his book, "Buy Back Your Time."

First, some context.

I picked up this book because I happened to meet Martell several years ago in person. My encounter with Martell, a successful tech entrepreneur, was a pivotal moment. I was on vacation visiting my brother in Kelowna, British Columbia and we were invited for a boat ride on his friend's beautiful boat. That friend happened to be Martell. I had no idea who Martell was but was amazed at the Kelowna lifestyle which involved wakeboarding on a weekday afternoon. I later learned it is not just the BC lifestyle that made this possible, but many strategic decisions on the part of Martell. When I saw Martell wrote a book for business owners, I knew that I had to read it because he is not just some time management guru but the real deal who practices what he preaches.

And now, on to what I learned from the book.

Martell explains what he calls the 5 "time assassins" that undermine growth:

1. The staller (who self-sabotages by stalling decisions)

2. The speed demon (who makes poor rapid decisions)

3. The supervisor (who fails to train and micromanages)

4. The saver (who does not invest in growth)

5. The self-medicator (who turns to substances to celebrate or escape)

He encourages readers to look at themselves and figure out where they are holding themselves back.

Martell challenges the conventional wisdom that our first hires should be billable roles. Instead, Martell advocates for starting with tasks that we find to be low energy and low monetary value so that we can focus on what truly matters and where our expertise is most enjoyed and profitable. He describes this repeatable process: identify the pain and then transfer that work to someone else. By freeing up your time, you can spend more time on tasks that make you money or are investments in your life and business.

Martell suggests a formula for determining how much you can afford to spend on hiring others to "buy back your time". The formula is your actual income / 8000 (he came to this formula by dividing your income by approximately 2000 hours of work a year, further divided by 4 so that you can hopefully achieve 4x return on your investment). For many solo lawyers, this final number will be around or possibly lower than minimum wage. That's ok, we all start somewhere. And such a budget is enough to hire freelancers on sites like Upwork to perform tasks like updating websites, creating email campaigns, or editing videos. He strongly advocates for having an assistant handle your email and provides a detailed "Email GPS system" to help ensure things do not fall through the cracks. He explains how our email often becomes the public's to-do list and ultimately consumes much of our time unnecessarily.

While I see the value of this strategy, I admit that giving up email feels like an impossible dream. So, for now, I am focused on strategies that result in fewer emails entering my inbox. A quick win: asking my assistant NOT to copy me on a variety of emails. I trust her and if the odd mistake happens, I have to accept that. As Martell explains, perfection is not possible and "80% done by someone else is 100% freakin’ awesome".

Martell's framework for evaluating tasks and hiring has four quadrants based on low to high energy and low to high monetary value. The four quadrants are:

Delegation - tasks that are low value and do not light you up
Replacement - tasks which make money but don't light you up
Production - tasks which light you up and make you money (aim to spend most of your time here)
Investment - tasks that do not make you money but pay dividends, such as being a guest on a podcast (aim to spend some of your time here)

A book filled with visuals (and therefore I suggest reading it, rather than listening to the audiobook), Martell provides a tool for performing a time and energy audit so you can identify which tasks belong in which quadrant.

He provides a replacement ladder to make it easier to know where to start. He also explains how to provide training - by filming yourself doing the low value task three times (so that trainees can see most iterations). The trainee can then write out a SOP based on the videos, which can be added to an office resource for others to use in the future.

He also gives advice on how to hire for and empower employees to be problem-solvers so that they don't take up your time with problems they could solve themselves. This approach helps business owners avoid the trap of running a business that drains their passion and creativity.

Martell suggests finding ways to test candidates, such as assigning a single project. He also discusses a strategy I have utilized in the past - asking job candidates to videorecord themselves as a way to assess technological ability, ability to follow instructions, and genuine interest in the role.

Other takeaways from the book include:

audit your time over a 2 week period so you can identify low value and low energy tasks that ought to be delegated to others (I did this and learned that I particularly enjoying serving my VIP caregiver clients who are navigating health system crises)
start by delegating administrative tasks because they are usually lower cost to hire (translation: in law firm terms, hire an assistant before your first associate)
define a "done" criterion for tasks so anyone you delegate to knows when a task is complete
the 1-3-1 rule for problem-solving (employees can approach you with questions with only one problem at a time, coupled with 3 options and which they believe is best)
time blocking to ensure your personal life remains sacred
batching tasks
planning your perfect week and year in advance (adding in family milestones, big conferences, vacations, etc. so they become non-negotiables)
creating a "10x vision map" of where you want to be (in theory it should be easy to dream big about what we can achieve, but it is hard to envision the impossible)
listing potential growth tactics and rating them based on ease, impact and your confidence of making it happen and then using the totals to prioritize each strategy
use your newfound time to develop skills, and to invest in yourself and your business

Without question, I will have to reread this book in order to incorporate all of these amazing strategies. By being incredibly thoughtful about our time, we can all achieve a level of professional success and personal freedom that better reflects our aspirations and values.

Categories: : Book Recommendation