In Episode #513, Eric and Neil discuss how important it is to find places where you can buy back your time so you can focus on what’s important to your business and making money. They also share some apps that will prove helpful in showing you how to become more efficient with your time.
Time-Stamped Show Notes:
- [00:28] – Today’s topic: How to Buy Back Your Time so You Can Make More Money
- [00:52] – Hiring people for certain jobs doesn’t mean you think you’re better than somebody else.
- [01:10] – Hiring others can allow you to focus on the high-leverage things you can be doing.
- [02:04] – Eating at restaurants and ridesharing services are examples of ways you can buy back your time.
- [02:17] – Hiring people to help you do things gets you the leverage to have the maximum impact.
- [02:24] – It is easier to buy back your time now than ever before.
- [03:12] – Focus on your efficiencies.
- [03:35] – Use the RescueTime app to show you the places where you are inefficient.
- [04:07] – Applying the Pareto Principle to relate to how time relates to making money.
- [04:28] – Use the Moment app to see how much time you are spending on your phone.
- [05:11] – Google a task prioritization chart and use that to see where you are spending your time and on what tasks.
- [06:34] – That’s it for today!
- [06:45] – Go to SingleGrain.com/giveaway for a special giveaway.
Leave some feedback:
- What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below.
- Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review.
Connect with us:
The post How to Buy Back Your Time so You Can Make More Money | Ep. #513 appeared first on Marketing School Podcast.
Full Transcript of The Episode
Automated: Get ready for your daily dose of marketing strategies and tactics from entrepreneurs with the guile and experience to help you find success in any marketing capacity. You're listening to Marketing School with your instructors, Neil Patel and Eric Siu.
Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.
Neil Patel: And I'm Neil Patel.
Eric Siu: And today, we're going to talk about how to buy back your time so you can make more money. So, what does that mean exactly? I was just thinking about this and right now, I know Neil's partner Mike does this. He has a maid, for example, that comes to clean and he also has someone that cooks as well. That sounds very bougie. It's like why would you ... who do you think you are? You're hiring these people; do you think like you're better than people? It's not that at all.
Right now, yes, I have someone that comes to help me clean and then someone that also delivers food to me at the same time, but it's like at the end of the day, when you think about what Neil's doing or what his partner is doing or what I'm doing, you are focusing on the things that will help you make $1000 per hour or $10,000 per hour. These are the really high leverage things that you can be doing, whether it's meeting with a potential client or it's meeting with people for a potential deal like some other kind of deal. That's where you can make the most impact.
So, you've got to think about a) where your area of genius is and b) where you can make the most impact, because you don't want to be doing tasks that are $10 or $20 an hour. Like yes, sure, you can go do it, you can learn. You can learn to cook, you could do all these things, and maybe you should go learn some of these things. That's absolutely fine; but if you want the highest impact in your business or whatever you're doing exactly, you've got to think about where you can buy back your time.
Because here's the thing, you can be saying like, "Oh, yeah. Okay, fine." You can go, you're doing well, you can go hire a cleaner or a cook, but at the end of the day, you're buying back time too. All of you that are listening to this, you have probably used some kind of ride-sharing service in the past, whether it be Uber or Lyft or maybe some kind of taxi. That's buying back your time. Or when you go to a restaurant, you're buying back your time. Think about it, when you're hiring people to help you do other things, you're gaining leverage so you can gain ... you can do the max impact on whatever you want, make the most of what you want to do in the world.
Neil Patel: And Eric just mentioned it. It's so much easier to buy back your time these days than it was five, 10 years ago. Uber, Postmates, Uber Eats, all this kind of apps really help you out. You can pay people to just help you with tasks. You don't have to hire full-time people. That's really inefficient and it's expensive. Buying back your time, not only makes you more efficient, but these apps these days also save you money.
If I bought a car, I would have to pay for maintenance, gas. I would have to pay for the car payments, insurance. It adds up. Like Eric has a Tesla; how much do you end up spending on it each month?
Eric Siu: 1700.
Neil Patel: 1700. I bet you, it would actually be cheaper for you to use Uber full-time.
Eric Siu: Probably.
Neil Patel: And if he used Uber full-time he could be working at the same time and making more money. Are you going to get rid of your Tesla now?
Eric Siu: Maybe.
Neil Patel: That's no. Anytime Eric says, "Maybe," it's a no, but the point we're trying to make is focus on efficiencies. I don't ever want to own a car. I don't ever want to drive a car. I don't want to go and get my food. It's not that I'm bougie. It's not that I'm lazy. I'd rather focus on work. Sure, you may end up calling me a workaholic and I have nothing else better to do in life, but I love what I'm doing and by being more productive and efficient with my time, it also makes me more money.
There's an app that you can also use that'll help you buy back your time. It's called RescueTime. It shows you where you're inefficient. Like you could be browsing Facebook too often and you could be doing tasks and it'll break them all down for you. You'll see how many hours you're spending on this kind of stuff each week or each month or each day, and you could be like, "Oh, wow. That's inefficient use of my time. I can pay someone on Upwork to do this for me, and then I can go specialize on closing more deals or managing my team or helping upsell clients," whatever it may be that'll end up helping you generate more income.
Because the key in life isn't just to keep working and working, it's to spend your time on that 20% that's really going to end up making 80% of your income.
Eric Siu: Yeah, so Pareto principle. For those of you, feel free to Google it. Here's the thing, in relation to RescueTime, there's a app for your phone as well because a lot of us are using phone all the time. On iOS at least, there's a app called Moment and you download Moment and it allows you to show ... It shows you how much time you're spending on the phone. It shows you how many times you picked up your phone and also at the same time, you can take a screenshot and then it'll show you how much time you actually spend on different apps.
For example, last week when I was in Japan, I was looking at all the time I was spending. I was spending maybe 15% to 20% of my phone time on Google maps because I was walking around Japan, but on the other side of things, I was spending all the time on YouTube, on Facebook as well. So, what did I do? I went ahead and I deleted those apps. So, I learned how to optimize my time. Download Moment, download RescueTime so you can figure out how to optimize it. Neil and I aren't telling you to be robots, but we are telling you to figure out what you can pare down.
Then also look at your life as well. What I like doing is a task prioritization chart. You can Google that as well. Make a column, put them in the Excel sheet, a Google sheet, whatever it is exactly. Put a chart, a column for $10 an hour, and then $100 an hour, and then $1000 an hour, then $10,000 an hour. Then in those columns, map out all the things that you're doing right now that fall into those categories. For example, cleaning the house, it's probably a 10-dollar an hour task, that goes there. Washing the dishes, probably $10 an hour, those kinds of things.
Then map out all the things that give you the highest leverage that you actually enjoy doing. This is your zone of genius, and then try to prioritize there. Even do this before the end of the year, because this is literally a couple of days before the end of the year. Look at what you want to be doing more of, let's say, and then also look at what you're actually spending the time doing that right now.
Let's say, next year, I want to focus more time on creating content and maybe only 10% of my time is spent towards creating content right now. Maybe next year, I want to spend 40% to 50% of my time on content; but it's important that you audit yourself before the end of the year or before a new quarter starts. That way you have a action plan and then you could hit the ground running.
Neil Patel: Yeah. I don't really have anything else from my end. You guys pretty much got it all in which save time, time is money, and focus on what's going to give you the biggest ROI in life. It's not about working a ton of hours. It's about being really efficient with your time.
Eric Siu: All right, that's it for today but before we go, go to singlegrain.com/giveaway for a special give away and we'll see you tomorrow.
Automated: This session of Marketing School has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe for more daily marketing strategies and tactics to help you find the success you've always dreamed of. And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best daily content possible. We'll see you in class tomorrow right here on Marketing School.
Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.
Neil Patel: And I'm Neil Patel.
Eric Siu: And today, we're going to talk about how to buy back your time so you can make more money. So, what does that mean exactly? I was just thinking about this and right now, I know Neil's partner Mike does this. He has a maid, for example, that comes to clean and he also has someone that cooks as well. That sounds very bougie. It's like why would you ... who do you think you are? You're hiring these people; do you think like you're better than people? It's not that at all.
Right now, yes, I have someone that comes to help me clean and then someone that also delivers food to me at the same time, but it's like at the end of the day, when you think about what Neil's doing or what his partner is doing or what I'm doing, you are focusing on the things that will help you make $1000 per hour or $10,000 per hour. These are the really high leverage things that you can be doing, whether it's meeting with a potential client or it's meeting with people for a potential deal like some other kind of deal. That's where you can make the most impact.
So, you've got to think about a) where your area of genius is and b) where you can make the most impact, because you don't want to be doing tasks that are $10 or $20 an hour. Like yes, sure, you can go do it, you can learn. You can learn to cook, you could do all these things, and maybe you should go learn some of these things. That's absolutely fine; but if you want the highest impact in your business or whatever you're doing exactly, you've got to think about where you can buy back your time.
Because here's the thing, you can be saying like, "Oh, yeah. Okay, fine." You can go, you're doing well, you can go hire a cleaner or a cook, but at the end of the day, you're buying back time too. All of you that are listening to this, you have probably used some kind of ride-sharing service in the past, whether it be Uber or Lyft or maybe some kind of taxi. That's buying back your time. Or when you go to a restaurant, you're buying back your time. Think about it, when you're hiring people to help you do other things, you're gaining leverage so you can gain ... you can do the max impact on whatever you want, make the most of what you want to do in the world.
Neil Patel: And Eric just mentioned it. It's so much easier to buy back your time these days than it was five, 10 years ago. Uber, Postmates, Uber Eats, all this kind of apps really help you out. You can pay people to just help you with tasks. You don't have to hire full-time people. That's really inefficient and it's expensive. Buying back your time, not only makes you more efficient, but these apps these days also save you money.
If I bought a car, I would have to pay for maintenance, gas. I would have to pay for the car payments, insurance. It adds up. Like Eric has a Tesla; how much do you end up spending on it each month?
Eric Siu: 1700.
Neil Patel: 1700. I bet you, it would actually be cheaper for you to use Uber full-time.
Eric Siu: Probably.
Neil Patel: And if he used Uber full-time he could be working at the same time and making more money. Are you going to get rid of your Tesla now?
Eric Siu: Maybe.
Neil Patel: That's no. Anytime Eric says, "Maybe," it's a no, but the point we're trying to make is focus on efficiencies. I don't ever want to own a car. I don't ever want to drive a car. I don't want to go and get my food. It's not that I'm bougie. It's not that I'm lazy. I'd rather focus on work. Sure, you may end up calling me a workaholic and I have nothing else better to do in life, but I love what I'm doing and by being more productive and efficient with my time, it also makes me more money.
There's an app that you can also use that'll help you buy back your time. It's called RescueTime. It shows you where you're inefficient. Like you could be browsing Facebook too often and you could be doing tasks and it'll break them all down for you. You'll see how many hours you're spending on this kind of stuff each week or each month or each day, and you could be like, "Oh, wow. That's inefficient use of my time. I can pay someone on Upwork to do this for me, and then I can go specialize on closing more deals or managing my team or helping upsell clients," whatever it may be that'll end up helping you generate more income.
Because the key in life isn't just to keep working and working, it's to spend your time on that 20% that's really going to end up making 80% of your income.
Eric Siu: Yeah, so Pareto principle. For those of you, feel free to Google it. Here's the thing, in relation to RescueTime, there's a app for your phone as well because a lot of us are using phone all the time. On iOS at least, there's a app called Moment and you download Moment and it allows you to show ... It shows you how much time you're spending on the phone. It shows you how many times you picked up your phone and also at the same time, you can take a screenshot and then it'll show you how much time you actually spend on different apps.
For example, last week when I was in Japan, I was looking at all the time I was spending. I was spending maybe 15% to 20% of my phone time on Google maps because I was walking around Japan, but on the other side of things, I was spending all the time on YouTube, on Facebook as well. So, what did I do? I went ahead and I deleted those apps. So, I learned how to optimize my time. Download Moment, download RescueTime so you can figure out how to optimize it. Neil and I aren't telling you to be robots, but we are telling you to figure out what you can pare down.
Then also look at your life as well. What I like doing is a task prioritization chart. You can Google that as well. Make a column, put them in the Excel sheet, a Google sheet, whatever it is exactly. Put a chart, a column for $10 an hour, and then $100 an hour, and then $1000 an hour, then $10,000 an hour. Then in those columns, map out all the things that you're doing right now that fall into those categories. For example, cleaning the house, it's probably a 10-dollar an hour task, that goes there. Washing the dishes, probably $10 an hour, those kinds of things.
Then map out all the things that give you the highest leverage that you actually enjoy doing. This is your zone of genius, and then try to prioritize there. Even do this before the end of the year, because this is literally a couple of days before the end of the year. Look at what you want to be doing more of, let's say, and then also look at what you're actually spending the time doing that right now.
Let's say, next year, I want to focus more time on creating content and maybe only 10% of my time is spent towards creating content right now. Maybe next year, I want to spend 40% to 50% of my time on content; but it's important that you audit yourself before the end of the year or before a new quarter starts. That way you have a action plan and then you could hit the ground running.
Neil Patel: Yeah. I don't really have anything else from my end. You guys pretty much got it all in which save time, time is money, and focus on what's going to give you the biggest ROI in life. It's not about working a ton of hours. It's about being really efficient with your time.
Eric Siu: All right, that's it for today but before we go, go to singlegrain.com/giveaway for a special give away and we'll see you tomorrow.
Automated: This session of Marketing School has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe for more daily marketing strategies and tactics to help you find the success you've always dreamed of. And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best daily content possible. We'll see you in class tomorrow right here on Marketing School.
