PDF Summary:Buy Back Your Time, by Dan Martell

Running a successful business requires a lot of time and effort, but it doesn’t have to take over your life. In Buy Back Your Time, veteran entrepreneur Dan Martell says you can run a profitable business and make time for the things you love without having to work yourself to the bone. Simply buy back your time: Hire others to take over some of your work, and then invest your reclaimed time in activities that replenish your energy and advance your business. Martell shares practical strategies for managing your time better, including how to identify a task’s value, waste less time at work, and create optimized schedules for achieving your personal and professional goals.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how to prioritize and delegate tasks, run your business more efficiently, and create weekly and yearly plans to optimize your time. Along the way, we’ll supplement Martell’s strategies with advice from other self-improvement experts and provide additional practical tips for taking control of your time.

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Next, look for candidates who have the skills and traits you’re looking for. Martell suggests you have candidates upload a short video answering several basic questions. This can help reveal their personalities, communication skills, and ability to follow directions. You can also use profile assessments or personality tests to gain insights about a candidate’s traits and how they might perform in workplace scenarios.

A Word of Caution on One-Way Interviews and Personality Tests

While one-way video interviews may be appealing due to their convenience, they also have some drawbacks you should consider:

Critics point out that one-way interviews can narrow your hiring pool in two ways. First, many job seekers find this format dehumanizing and impersonal, which can deter potentially promising candidates from applying. In fact, research has shown that 58% of job seekers have declined a job offer due to a poor hiring experience. Second, one-way interviews put people who don’t have good internet or video recording equipment, and those with disabilities, at a disadvantage.

Others also argue that one-way video interviews can introduce bias into the hiring process. Without the chance for a two-way conversation, hiring managers may watch these videos and unconsciously judge candidates on their appearance, age, or gender rather than their skills or experiences. This unintentional bias can lead to less diverse and inclusive workplaces.

Similarly, some experts advise you to be cautious when using personality tests in hiring, as not all personality assessments are suitable for hiring. In fact, some companies create these assessments to predict job performance but end up exaggerating their capability. Not all of these assessments are created equal—some lack validity (meaning that they don't measure what they claim to), and others lack reliability (meaning that they may give inconsistent results over time). Therefore, hiring teams should ensure that whatever tests they use are valid, reliable, and highly relevant to the position they’re hiring for.

Another possible weakness could be their misuse. For instance, the popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator isn’t meant for recruitment processes, but it’s sometimes used anyway. This can result in poor hiring decision-making or even legal consequences.

Once you've filtered the field down to your top choices, assign your candidates a paid test project that reflects the real work they’d do if hired. Martell recommends you give minimal instructions: This will provide candidates with an opportunity to showcase their problem-solving skills and work style.

(Shortform note: What if you can’t afford to give candidates a paid test project? In The Making of a Manager, Julie Zhuo says you can glean helpful insights about a candidate’s skills and problem-solving abilities by looking at their past projects. Look for completed projects that are relevant to the work you intend for them to do at your company.)

Finally, when you’ve found the right person, shift your effort toward convincing them to join your company. Highlight the opportunities and growth your organization offers and clearly communicate how the position aligns with their career goals.

(Shortform note: In Who, Geoff Smart and Randy Street argue that you must not only convince your candidate to accept the job offer during the interview but also keep them engaged for their first 100 days of employment. Many people reconsider their decision within that window, so the authors recommend you tackle common concerns, which typically include the following: a disconnect between the role and their goals, a negative impact on loved ones, limited autonomy, inadequate compensation, and an ill-fitting work environment. For example, if your candidate has to move to a foreign country and they’re concerned about the work environment, you might offer an introductory foreign language course to address this concern.)

Part 2: Reclaim Time at Work

Now that you’ve delegated tasks that drain your energy, let’s discuss how to reclaim your time at work by running your business more efficiently. In this section, we’ll discuss how to recognize harmful habits that cost you time and energy, empower employees to handle tasks independently, and create time-saving operating manuals for training employees.

Confront Time-Wasting Habits

Martell writes that entrepreneurs should first tackle habits that may be sapping your time and energy. He argues that many entrepreneurs become so used to chaos and stressful situations that they feel anxious during periods of calm. As a result, they unconsciously seek out or even create problems.

Consider whether you’ve developed any time-wasting behaviors that create and perpetuate chaos within your business, such as:

Procrastination: You hold off on making big decisions, stalling the progress and development of your business.

Haste: You make decisions too quickly, often prioritizing the quickest, cheapest, or simplest options. Without taking the time to reflect on your decisions and the reasons for their failure, you often end up repeating the same errors.

Wearing all hats: You have a tendency to micromanage while failing to adequately train or empower others to develop and learn. If you fall into this category, you might find yourself doing tasks you’ve hired other people to do.

Saving instead of investing: You save money instead of using it to make smart investments—for instance, you hoard funds instead of using them on time-saving tools, technologies, or services to increase your company’s operational efficiency and productivity. Martell argues that this is a shortsighted strategy that can lead to missed opportunities that could potentially offer high returns and catalyze company growth.

Unhealthy coping mechanisms: You resort to vices as a reward for success or an escape from failure or pain. This behavior can drain productive hours, affecting your overall energy and productivity.

Martell suggests you identify and confront these habits by taking time to list your last 10 major decisions and evaluating whether they were constructive or destructive. This can reveal recurring habits that are taking away your time and energy.

How to Change Your Habits

While Martell suggests you tackle your time-wasting habits, he doesn’t explain how to go about it. Charles Duhigg in The Power of Habit provides tools for understanding and changing your bad habits. He argues that bad habits can’t be eliminated—they must be replaced with good ones. Let’s look at how to do so:

First, let’s take a look at what a habit is. Duhigg says that a habit is made of three things: a cue, a routine, and a reward.

1) A cue triggers your brain to perform a specific routine. Cues can be varying situations, emotions, people, or even previous actions. For example, if you notice that you procrastinate whenever you're feeling overwhelmed, that sensation of being overwhelmed is your cue.

2) You perform the routine—the physical, mental, or emotional sequence of automatic behavior associated with the cue. For example, when you get overwhelmed, you may avoid the task and distract yourself with video games.

3) After doing the routine, you experience a reward that signals the end of your habit. For example, when you procrastinate, you experience temporary relief from the stress or anxiety of your workload.

Duhigg explains that to replace a bad habit, you must understand the cue that prompts the habit, the routine you follow, and the reward your brain associates with the habit. Then, experiment with different routines with new rewards until you find one that feels satisfying to you. For example, when you feel overwhelmed the next time, instead of procrastinating, you might break down your work into smaller, more manageable tasks and take a short break after completing one. This new habit also creates relief from stress but in a more productive way.

Empower Your Employees

Martell also suggests you reclaim time at work by controlling your urge to micromanage a task when it’s someone else’s job to handle it. You might feel the need to oversee tasks that others are responsible for to ensure they’re done properly. However, Martell argues that this behavior takes your time away from more valuable tasks.

(Shortform note: Micromanaging isn’t just a time sink for you—it can negatively affect your employees, too. Some experts argue that micromanagement is a form of bullying because it’s a way to control others. It diminishes the confidence and motivation of employees, making them feel fearful about doing anything without their manager’s approval and insecure about their abilities. Evidence shows that micromanagement often has a negative impact on mental health, work performance, and self-esteem.)

Martell writes that if someone can handle a task competently to about 80% of your standard, you should entrust them with it. He suggests several ways to empower your employees to excel in their responsibilities:

1. Give your team an allowance. Set an appropriate budget for your team to use autonomously when issues arise. This not only allows the team to take charge, learn, and grow, but it also resolves problems efficiently without your intervention.

(Shortform note: In Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work, Paul L. Marciano recommends not only providing your team with financial resources to tackle problems, but also regularly asking your team about the resources they need to be successful and then providing them—whether it’s by sharing information or offering training. If you’re unsure of the best budget for your team to be successful, Tim Ferriss in Tools of Titans suggests holding weekly reviews: You can set a preliminary amount, review how your team makes use of the budget each week, and then adjust the budget as necessary.)

2. Define success. For simple tasks, clearly state what “done” looks like—for example, “The bug in the code has been identified and corrected, and the updated code runs smoothly without causing the previous error." For larger tasks, Martell recommends you outline three things: 1) what should be achieved, 2) how the team members involved should feel about it, and 3) what the completion of the task accomplishes or enables.

(Shortform note: Martell’s recommendation to provide a definition of done (DoD) is derived from Agile methodology, a project management approach that values adaptability and making small, incremental changes. It emerged as a way for teams to deliver high-quality products as efficiently as possible, reducing rework. While Martell suggests you create the DoD, others say you should collaboratively define it with your entire team so everyone’s on the same page.)

3. Use the 1:3:1 Rule. Before an employee seeks your help, ask them to first pinpoint the problem, come up with three solutions, and suggest one they believe will work best. This boosts your team’s critical thinking, fosters responsibility, and encourages innovation.

(Shortform note: Employees may feel more comfortable implementing the 1:3:1 rule if you cultivate a psychologically safe environment—one in which team members feel safe to express their thoughts without fear of repercussions. In The Fearless Organization, Amy Edmondson contends that when team members feel safe, they’re less hesitant to share ideas, no matter how out-of-the-box they might be, which can lead them to propose more innovative solutions. She recommends several practices that leaders can follow to foster psychological safety, including redefining failure and encouraging participation by practicing humility and curiosity.)

4. Give employees more autonomy. When you tell employees what to do and then check their work, they experience little growth and take little initiative. Instead, Martell recommends you simply tell employees what needs to be accomplished and let them decide the best way to accomplish it. This gives your team members—who are closer to the problem and possibly more informed about it—space and motivation to address the issues creatively, thus elevating their capabilities.

(Shortform note: What is autonomy and why do we need it? In Drive, Daniel Pink defines autonomy as acting through internal choice, not through external pressure. He explains that autonomy can have positive effects on performance and satisfaction because humans are biologically wired to be self-driven. For your team to benefit the most, Pink suggests you give them autonomy in four areas: their task, when they work, how they do the work, and whom they work with. However, different people may want more or less autonomy in certain areas, so it’s best to adjust the level of autonomy you give to each team member accordingly.)

Use Operating Manuals to Train Employees Efficiently

Martell writes that you can also save time when running your business by creating operating manuals for all of your company’s processes. These manuals allow you to take a hands-off approach to training your employees, saving you time while maintaining quality standards.

Martell suggests you create operating manuals using the following steps:

1. Create training videos for the task you want others to do. Record yourself doing the task three separate times while verbally explaining your actions. By making several recordings for your trainee to watch, you can cover any variations in how the task might be done.

2. Create step-by-step instructions. Write a simple bulleted list of key steps for each task. This ensures employees are clear on everything that needs to be accomplished. For instance, if you’re training an employee to handle customer complaints, your list might include greeting the customer courteously, asking about the issue, apologizing for the inconvenience, solving the problem, and following up with the customer to confirm their issue has been resolved.

3. Specify how often the task should be done. Define when and how often each task should be completed.

4. Create a checklist of essential tasks. Include every must-do action for each task. This ensures consistency in quality and approach.

Martell writes that once you’ve created operating manuals for various elements, you should have new hires read them and watch all related training videos.

Create Operating Manuals For Your Life

Creating operating manuals for your company frees up your time, so why not create them for your life? In Getting Things Done, David Allen recommends a work-life management system he created to manage your tasks efficiently and relieve mental clutter. Let’s look at how you can take the principles of the GTD system and apply them to your everyday life, just as you would with an operating manual for your company:

First, both Allen’s GTD and Martell’s method highlight the value of recording every task. Allen suggests you ”capture” everything—put every task and idea onto an external management system (one that’s outside your memory). Use various “containers” to put your captured ideas into, such as paper notebooks, emails, or digital/audio note-taking systems or apps.

Allen also recommends breaking down the steps to accomplishing a task: Determine everything that needs to happen for a task to be successful, sort those elements into priorities and sequences, and then add in necessary details. However, he suggests you more importantly identify all next actions for tasks that are possible to pursue now. For example, if an item says “clean the garage,” but there’s an old refrigerator taking up space that you want to offer to a friend, your next action is to ask your friend if they want the appliance.

Finally, both Allen and Martell recommend making checklists to declutter your mind. In The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande provides some tips for creating an effective checklist. First, clearly define when the checklist should be consulted. Then decide whether the checklist should be used after people perform the job (to make sure all items are completed) or while they work (checking off each task as they go). Gawande suggests you make the checklist nine items or fewer, since long checklists run the risk of people skipping or missing steps. Once you’ve created a checklist, test it by having people apply it in the real world and provide feedback.

Part 3: Optimize Your Time With Schedules

Once you’ve reclaimed time by freeing your schedule and making your business more efficient, the final step is to use your reclaimed time on high-value activities you excel at and feel energized doing. To do so, Martell recommends you create a weekly and yearly schedule. He argues that creating schedules ensures you have time for the most important things in your life. When you have everything important prescheduled, he adds, you can more easily agree to new opportunities and spontaneous activities.

Create a Weekly Schedule

Martell suggests you create a weekly schedule designed to optimize your productivity. A weekly schedule allows you to:

• Remove time-wasting gaps in your schedule.
• Allocate tasks according to your fluctuating energy levels throughout the day.
• Avoid spending more time than you wanted on a single task.
• Discover opportunities to accomplish more than one thing (like listening to a podcast while driving).

(Shortform note: While weekly schedules can help streamline your day, you might not want to eradicate all of your gap time or constantly strive to accomplish multiple things at once. In High Performance Habits, Brendon Burchard says breaks are important for being able to focus and think clearly. He recommends you take 5- to 10-minute breaks every hour—set a timer and get up to move around when it goes off. This refreshes your mind and body, making you more productive than if you’d worked straight through your day jumping from task to task.)

To make a weekly schedule, Martell suggests you:

1. Schedule your most important tasks, both work-related and personal. Research suggests that people perform better on tasks they enjoy, so the most productive way to spend your time is by doing high-value and energizing (Group A) tasks. However, you should also leave room for lower-value but still energizing (Group B) tasks—like hobbies or social activities—because they recharge your energy.

(Shortform note: Some experts advise against scheduling your leisure activities, with one study finding that you enjoy planned leisure activities less than spontaneous ones. This is because your brain views all scheduled activities similarly—as work to be crossed off a to-do list. To make time for leisure activities without dampening your enjoyment of them, other experts recommend loosely planning them. For instance, instead of assigning a specific time block for doing your hobby, you could just plan to do it in the evenings after dinner.)

2. Arrange your tasks based on when you’re most productive. For example, do tasks that require the most concentration when you have the best energy and focus.

(Shortform note: In When, Daniel Pink explains that most people experience a predictable pattern of mood and energy throughout the day: They peak at the beginning of the day (feeling the happiest and most alert), experience a slump in the middle of the day, and then recover near the day’s end. However, this pattern varies for different people depending on their chronotype or internal clock. Some people hit their crest in the morning, while others are most alert at night. You can take a chronotype quiz to determine which type you are.)

3. Group similar tasks. For example, if you're a writer, it might be more efficient to edit all of your work in one go. This eliminates the time spent transitioning between tasks—your mind is already in the right mode for the task, allowing you to accomplish it faster and to a higher standard.

(Shortform note: Task batching is effective because it reduces multitasking, which many experts argue is ineffective. It not only takes time to switch to a different type of task but also energy. Therefore, research suggests that task batching decreases burnout while promoting deep focus. However, be sure to schedule more mentally challenging tasks when you’re at your energy peak to be more effective.)

Create Your Annual Plan

Martell writes that to make the most of your time and achieve your life goals, you should define what you want in life and design an annual plan to help you achieve it. An annual plan allows you to plot the best path toward your dream life.

First, Martell recommends you visualize your dream life in as much detail as possible. Don’t limit yourself to what you think is realistic. The bigger the dream, the more it'll inspire you and give you the push needed to achieve it. Martell suggests you outline three specific areas of your dream life:

• People: Who are the most important people working with you and supporting you in reaching your dream?
• Professional: What’s the one business you’re devoting yourself to? According to Martell, the most successful entrepreneurs focus all their energy on one business first. Once you’re clear on that, you can imagine ways of expanding your business, whether you’re introducing new products or tapping into new markets.
• Lifestyle: What does your home and personal life look like? What hobbies or community activities are you involved in?

(Shortform note: If you’re struggling to visualize your dream life through imagination alone, creating a vision board can help. Rhonda Byrne explains how to create one in The Secret: Find a poster board and attach images that represent your dream life. You could even consider splitting your vision board into three sections to cover the areas Martell recommends you imagine—one for the people you want in your life, one for your business, and one for your personal life. Byrne suggests taking a moment to feel the experience of each picture as you put it on your vision board and to put your finished board where you can see it often.)

Next, break down your dream into actionable steps. Identify the milestones you’ll need to reach on the way to your ultimate goal. Then jot down some key strategies for achieving each milestone. Martell recommends you rank each strategy based on how beneficial it would be, how easy it is to enact, and how confident you are that it’ll succeed.

For instance, if opening a successful restaurant is your dream, your milestones could involve professional training in restaurant management, gaining experience in a renowned restaurant, preparing a business plan, finding funding, and then finally launching your restaurant.

Then, schedule your year: Begin by slotting in significant events and important strategies for achieving your goals. Martell also recommends grouping similar events —for instance, you might decide to spend a month attending networking events and industry luncheons. Don't forget to give yourself regular breaks so you can stay energetic and focused all year round. Lastly, add in everyday tasks such as personal obligations and recurring job duties.

Create Your “Dreamline”

In The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss provides additional tips for how to turn your dreams into an actionable timeline. He also recommends you make your dreams unrealistic for the reasons Martell does, adding that such dreams have less competition than smaller dreams, which the majority of people pursue because they seem more achievable. Let’s look at Ferriss’s steps for planning your dream life and how they compare to Martell’s:

First, Ferriss says you must get clear about what your dream is. Instead of visualizing three areas of life, he recommends you create a list of five things you want to have, five things you want to be, and five things you want to do within 12 months. To brainstorm these things, consider:

• The opposite of what you don’t want

• What you would do every day if you had $100 million

• What would make you excited to wake up every morning

• A place to visit, a bucket-list item, something you want to learn, or something you want to do regularly

Second, choose your four most exciting and important dreams. Do some math to determine the monthly costs of each and the necessary income to fund them (a step Martell doesn’t discuss). Ferriss provides a calculator on his website for doing so.

Third, Ferriss recommends you identify the first three steps for each of your four dreams rather than all of the steps to achieve your goals. These should be doable in less than five minutes and clearly defined. Ferriss recommends you do the first step right now—otherwise, you’ll delay it and potentially never get to it. Take the second step tomorrow and the third the day after.

To make sure you can successfully carry out your annual plan, consider the time, money, and energy that each event will demand. If you're not confident that your plan will make your year fantastic, edit it some more. Once you’ve created your plan, stay committed to it but leave room for unexpected opportunities. Having an annual plan allows you to be in control and enjoy life while pursuing your goals.

(Shortform note: While making a detailed plan will keep you on track with your goals, it's important to recognize that you can't control everything. In Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman stresses the importance of being flexible when planning for the future. He states that expecting the future to unfold as you planned it leads to unhappiness and wasted planning time if those expectations aren’t met. Instead, be comfortable with uncertainty—reflect on how little control you’ve had over your past life events and remember that success can occur through unexpected events as well as planned ones.)