The First Ten Hours: How to Buy Back Your Time (Without Burning Down Your Business)
Most business owners start a company chasing freedom.
And then—almost immediately—they trade a 9–5 for the “privilege” of working 24/7, carrying more stress, more risk, and a calendar that feels like it’s owned by everyone except them.
That’s not freedom. That’s a trap with a logo.
In one of my LIVE365 morning sessions (I go live every day at 8:00 AM Eastern on Facebook), I talked about a concept that hits entrepreneurs—especially contractors—right between the eyes:
Your first ten hours.
Not ten hours someday. Not ten hours when things slow down.
Ten hours back, starting now.
Because once you reclaim time, you don’t just “feel” better… you get your life back.
Freedom Isn’t a Feeling. It’s the Hours You Control.
Let’s start by clearing up a lie that keeps people stuck.
A lot of owners talk about freedom like it’s a future destination:
“Once we finish this project…”
“Once we hire a couple more guys…”
“Once we hit the next revenue number…”
But here’s the truth:
Freedom isn’t margin.
Freedom isn’t revenue.
Freedom is the hours you can control.
If you don’t control your hours, you don’t control your life. Everybody else does.
And I’ve lived that. When everything runs through you—every decision, every fire, every client issue, every approval—you don’t have a business.
You have a bottleneck.
The Four Lies That Keep You Chained to the Business
When owners tell me they “can’t” buy back time, it usually comes wrapped in one of these phrases:
“I’m too busy to change.”
“That’ll slow us down.”
“No one else can do it.” (Translation: no one else can do it like I can.)
“Now’s not the time.” (Winter. Summer. After this job. After the next job…)
Those aren’t reasons.
They’re chains.
And the longer you wear them, the heavier they get.
Step One: Find the Leaks
Time doesn’t disappear. It leaks.
And most leaks fall into three buckets:
1) Repeating Tasks
The same admin stuff. The same back-and-forth. The same busywork you shouldn’t be doing.
2) Repeating Problems
The same preventable chaos, because nobody took the time to build the system.
3) Repeating Decisions
You’re deciding the same thing over and over because there’s no standard—no SOP, no rule, no delegated owner.
If you’re constantly solving the same issues, that’s not leadership.
That’s you living inside a loop.
Step Two: Plug the Leaks (Four Options)
Once you see the leak, you don’t need a motivational quote. You need a move.
Here are the only four ways to plug it:
1) Delegate
Assign it to someone who can own it.
2) Systematize
Create an SOP so it runs the same way every time.
3) Schedule
Put it in the right place with boundaries—stop letting everything interrupt everything else.
4) Eliminate
Some things don’t need to be done at all.
And here’s a key line:
Make tasks “audition” to get on your calendar.
If it’s not worthy, it doesn’t get on.
Why Buying Back One Hour Feels Better Than a Big Check
This part surprises people.
When you buy back your first hour, it hits different than making money.
Because money is renewable.
Time isn’t.
You can always sell another job.
You can always make another dollar.
But no one is making more hours.
That first hour you reclaim is you breathing again. It’s you remembering what it feels like to not be pinned under the business.
Don’t Buy Back Time to Do Nothing—Buy It Back to Do What Matters
Buying back your time isn’t about sitting on the couch.
It’s about redeploying your hours into what actually moves the needle:
Better leadership
Better health
Better marriage and family time
Better planning and thinking
Better growth (personal and professional)
Buying back time is about doing what matters.
Not doing more.
The “First Ten Hours” Breakdown
Ten hours per week doesn’t sound crazy until you do the math.
10 hours/week = 520 hours/year.
That’s not a productivity hack.
That’s essentially giving yourself months back every year.
Here’s how to find those ten hours without nuking your business:
2 Hours: Admin You’re Still Doing
Invoices, scheduling, reminders, uploading, organizing—stuff that isn’t owner-level work.
2 Hours: Phone Calls Someone Else Can Handle
Not the CEO calls. The routine calls. The “someone else can clean this up” calls.
2 Hours: Chaos That Gets Fixed With Systems
Every time you “just handle it,” you guarantee you’ll handle it again.
2 Hours: Firefighting That Goes Away With Structure
Most fires are just symptoms of no standards.
2 Hours: Low-Value Work You Shouldn’t Touch
The stuff you do “because it’s faster if I do it.”
That’s the trap.
The Simple Filter That Will Change Your Life
Ask yourself this question:
“Does this really affect my life?”
If the answer is no…
Let it go.
Some of you need that on a sticky note.
Because you’re carrying things that don’t deserve to be carried—just because you’ve always carried them.
“Who Not How” in Real Life
Here’s what this looks like in the real world:
A VA takes over repeatable admin and content tasks.
Someone else owns the podcast process from “record” to “published.”
Groceries get delivered instead of you burning an hour and your sanity in the store.
A cleaner handles the house so your weekends don’t disappear into “maintenance mode.”
If you can pay someone less than your effective hourly value to do a task…
Unload it.
Not because you’re above it.
Because your time has a better use.
Start Smaller If You Need To
Maybe you’re reading this thinking:
“Bob, ten hours sounds awesome… but I can’t get ten.”
Cool.
Go get one.
Where can you find one hour this week?
One task delegated
One decision standardized
One meeting eliminated
One process documented
One boundary enforced
Momentum doesn’t start with ten.
It starts with one.
Two Books That Will Drive This Home (Over and Over)
If this message hits you—and you can feel that pull to reclaim your time—there are two books I recommend that will absolutely reinforce the point and keep you sharp as you grow:
Who Not How by Dan Sullivan
This book forces a mindset shift that most owners never make: stop asking “How do I do this?” and start asking “Who can help me get this done?” That one change alone will begin to break the bottleneck cycle and create real leverage.Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
This is a straight-up playbook for treating time like the asset it is. The core reminder is simple: if you want to grow and scale, you have to stop trying to do everything alone—and start deliberately buying back your hours with the right people, systems, and boundaries.
Honestly, I feel like these are the kind of books you could read a couple times per year—because the lesson is never “learned once.” As the business grows, the demands grow. And you’ll constantly be challenged to go back to the same question:
Am I trying to figure out “how” again… or am I finding the right “who”?
Your Challenge
This week, don’t aim for perfection.
Aim for progress.
Identify one time leak.
Pick one way to plug it (delegate, systematize, schedule, eliminate).
Redeploy that hour into something that actually matters.
And if you want to keep going deeper into topics like this, come hang with me on LIVE365.
I’m live every day at 8:00 AM Eastern on Facebook, talking leadership, business, sales, discipline, and how to build a company that supports your life—not consumes it.
No comments:
Post a Comment