Recapture Your Time

"I don't have enough hours in the day!" is one of the most common complaints of business owners.

Lack of time ranks far above lack of money as a barrier to growth. After all, you can borrow money, but your hours are fixed in number.

But this workbook book is not about time management. You should focus not on "saving time" but on "investing time" strategically.

• Where can you get the highest return on each hour of your time?

• What should you be doing to focus on growing your business to the size and profitability you want?

The exercises in this workbook help you answer these questions.

I give you a 4-tiered approach to recapturing your time and using it strategically:

Level 1. Triage Your Time. Generate some "right-now" benefits. How can you stop the time hemorrhaging? Where can you recapture a small amount of time, to give you the space to focus on longer-term improvements in your time use? Level 2. Recapture Your Time. Make some near-term improvements. Restructure the way you do things. How can you permanently change the demands on your time, so that you can focus on strategic priorities? Level 3. Invest Your Time. Undertake longer-term restructuring. See how you can leverage your time and creativity. Over the next year or so, how can you restructure your business to help you make your greatest contribution to its success, have the workstyle you want, and achieve your long-term objectives? Level 4. Leverage Your Time. Maximize the return on your creativity (ROC) by putting together products or services from your unique solutions to client problems, and building an ongoing revenue stream.