Time management and productivity for leaders

From: alexhormozi

This article provides a tactical approach to time management and productivity, specifically for business owners and high-level employees, emphasizing that effective work goes beyond mere effort or time spent [00:03:47]. The core premise is that true productivity comes from focusing on high-leverage activities and eliminating non-essential tasks [00:17:18].

Defining Work and Output

Traditional definitions of work (force x distance, time on clock, or effort) are not useful for knowledge workers [00:00:44]. The speaker proposes a definition where work is fundamentally about outputs [00:01:34].

• Work = Outputs [00:01:34]
• Outputs = Volume × Leverage [00:01:36]
  • Volume is the number of times you do something [00:01:42].
  • Leverage is how much you get out of each time you do it [00:01:43].
• To work faster or do more work per unit of time, the formula is: (Volume × Leverage) / Time [00:01:50], which translates to output per unit of time [00:01:57].

Many people claim to work hard, but the speaker observes that most do not engage in activities that genuinely grow their business [00:03:29].

“The reason this is so important defining work is that all of us claim to work every day and yet most of us can’t even Define the word” [00:00:32]

Identifying Business Growth Inputs

To grow a business, there are two fundamental paths [00:04:03]:

1. Get more customers [00:04:05]
   • Increase traffic [00:04:16] (e.g., advertise more/better [00:04:37])
   • Convert a higher percentage of traffic [00:04:18] (e.g., practice sales, improve offer [00:04:39])
2. Make existing customers worth more [00:04:07]
   • Raise prices [00:04:23]
   • Decrease cost of goods sold [00:04:24]
   • Get people to buy more stuff more times (e.g., decrease churn through reach-outs, exit interviews, improved onboarding, events) [00:04:25]

For most smaller businesses, the primary focus should be disproportionately on getting more traffic and improving conversion [00:05:50]. If you don’t have customers, you can’t raise prices or increase lifetime value [00:06:11].

The Problem with “Busy Work”

Much of the time spent “working” by business owners has the same impact as doing nothing if it doesn’t align with these core growth activities [00:05:18]. This leads to stagnation [00:05:44].

Prioritizing Your Time

Prioritizing tasks is crucial. Some problems are not “the problem” of the business today and can be neglected for a season [00:08:12]. Once a skill is gained, it takes less time to maintain it, freeing up time for other growth areas [00:10:14].

Example: If you master traffic generation but struggle with sales conversion, conversion becomes the new limiter [00:08:38]. You should then train someone else on advertising and dedicate four hours a day to optimizing conversion [00:08:48].

Activities for improving conversion could include:

• Tracking close rates [00:08:57]
• Recording sales interactions [00:09:01]
• Watching “game tape” of successful sales [00:09:10]
• Practicing sales scripts daily [00:09:15]
• Hiring a sales coach for daily feedback [00:09:17]
• Mental prep before consults [00:09:22]
• Using pre-sale questionnaires [00:09:25]
• Better phone qualification [00:09:34]

Strategies for Time Management

All skills are attainable through repetition and feedback [00:09:51]. Once proficient, you gain leverage, doing more in less time [00:09:57].

Finding Time: Maker Time vs. Manager Time

Entrepreneurs have two primary types of work periods [00:12:52]:

• Maker Time: Long, uninterrupted blocks (4-6 hours) dedicated to low-urgency, high-importance work that moves the business forward [00:12:55]. Interruptions destroy these blocks [00:13:09]. A productive maker calendar is an empty calendar [00:13:07].
• Manager Time: Smaller blocks (5-15 minutes) for managing teams, coordination, communication, and putting out fires [00:13:31]. The goal is to fill the calendar with these slots [00:13:37].

It is crucial to understand and explain to your team the difference between these work styles and their importance to the business’s growth [00:14:21]. Mixing manager tasks into maker time is inefficient and unproductive [00:14:06].

Maker Habits

To facilitate maker time, the speaker suggests:

• Decide on one most important project to work on [00:14:44].
• Work early in the morning (e.g., 4 AM to 9 AM) [00:14:50].
• Turn off all notifications [00:14:53].
• Create a distraction-free environment (dark room, no sound, earplugs) [00:14:56].
• Understand that there are almost no true business emergencies [00:15:08].
• Maintain a consistent sleep schedule, even on weekends [00:15:25].
• Consider working on weekends for uninterrupted blocks (104 days a year) [00:16:03].

Buying Time: Elimination for Greater Productivity

Personal experience with productivity shows that productivity increases more through elimination of non-essential tasks than by optimizing how you do everything [00:17:18]. This is about acknowledging you have “one battery” and eliminating drains not aligned with your goals [00:17:16].

Categorizing common time-consuming activities and their replacement costs:

• Food (groceries, prepping, eating, cleaning): 50 hours/month; replacement cost ~$800/month [00:18:40].
• Home Cleaning: 25 hours/month; replacement cost ~$500/month [00:18:51].
• Laundry: 16 hours/month; replacement cost ~$200/month [00:18:57].

These three activities combined can free up 96 hours per month (two full work weeks) for approximately $1,500/month [00:19:06]. If your time is worth more than $15/hour, this trade-off is highly beneficial [00:19:17]. This is a form of reinvesting in yourself, but the time gained must be used for high-value work, not leisure [00:19:30].

Further time-wasters that cost nothing to eliminate:

• Following sports teams: 4 hours/week [00:20:33]
• Watching TV: 21 hours/week [00:20:38]
• Scrolling social media: 17 hours/week [00:20:42]

Commuting can also be bought back by using services like Uber, freeing up time for productive work during transit [00:20:46].

The Unfair Advantage

By systematically identifying core growth activities, dedicating specific time blocks (balancing maker and manager time), and eliminating low-value tasks by “buying back” time, a business leader can achieve significantly higher output than competitors [00:24:25]. An individual dedicating 96 productive hours a week can move 30 times faster than someone only getting 3 productive hours a week [00:18:13]. This approach allows leaders to fulfill their managerial duties while also performing the high-leverage “maker” work essential for growth [00:22:57]. The secret to accelerating growth is not a hack, but the diligent elimination of energy drains not aligned with your goals [00:25:16].