March 24, 2025
Reclaim Your Freedom of Time with an Audit
The largest mistake I made once I first began out? Dropping hours each week to low-value duties.
Do you do that? Possibly you assume you understand the place your time goes, however and not using a correct time audit, you’re simply guessing.
And let me let you know: guessing is dangerous for enterprise.
Why you want a time audit (sure, you!)
Time is your most respected useful resource, however most entrepreneurs spend it haphazardly. We get caught in a loop of admin work, resolution fatigue, and fixed firefighting. You get caught in the enterprise as a substitute of working on it.
That is the place a time audit is available in. It forces you to confront the reality and ask:
Are you designing and rising your small business?
Or, are you drowning in duties you shouldn’t be doing?
The audit provides you the information you could remove, automate, and delegate so you’ll be able to lastly deal with designing an environment friendly, sustainable enterprise?.
Find out how to do a time audit (Clockwork type)
1. Monitor each job for a full week:
Write down all the pieces you do throughout your work hours. Be relentless – each assembly, e mail, and occasional refill counts.
Professional tip: Use your calendar to log actions in real-time. If you happen to miss something, evaluate your despatched emails and name logs to fill within the gaps
2. Categorize your time utilizing the 4Ds:
Impressed by Clockwork, you’ll group your duties into 4 classes:
Doing: The hands-on, each day grind (emails, admin, duties it is best to delegate).
Deciding: If you’re pulled into selections however nonetheless the bottleneck (approving, reviewing).
Delegating: If you assign duties to others however nonetheless oversee them.
Designing: The gold commonplace. Designing is strategic, artistic work that scales your small business.
Purpose: Maximize your time spent in Designing and Delegating. Decrease Doing and Deciding.
3. Get rid of, Automate, and Delegate:
When you categorize your week, it’s time to:
Automate repetitive processes (assume: cost reminders, scheduling, e mail sequences).
Delegate duties to staff, contractors, or automation instruments.
Reallocate your reclaimed hours to high-impact actions.
What not to do
Don’t assume you already know the place your time goes. You don’t till you see it on paper
Don’t observe solely the massive stuff. Small, repetitive duties (like checking Slack each quarter-hour) are the hidden time killers.
Don’t skip the elimination section. Slicing out pointless work is simply as highly effective as delegating.
Why this issues for your small business
If you run your small business with intentionality, you unlock freedom and scalability. Right here’s why:
Time audits = data-driven selections. You’ll cease making selections primarily based on intestine emotions and begin optimizing primarily based on information.
Extra design time = extra development. The much less you do, the extra you’ll be able to design programs that scale.
Clockwork ideas in motion. That is precisely what Clockwork teaches: learn how to construct a enterprise that runs itself—so you’ll be able to lastly step away and benefit from the freedom you began this complete factor for.
If this course of hits house, you could learn Clockwork. It’s your full playbook for reworking your small business right into a self-sustaining machine. You’ll study:
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Find out how to run a time audit that reveals precisely the place you’re losing hours.
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Methods to delegate successfully with out micromanaging
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The artwork of “Design Time”? Releasing your self up for high-level, artistic, and strategic work.
Ultimate thought:
As Stephen R. Covey stated, “The bottom line is in not spending time, however in investing it.”
A time audit is your first step towards freedom and effectivity. It’s not about working more durable, it’s about working smarter. And whenever you grasp your time, you grasp your small business.
Maintain scaling – You’ve obtained this.
-Mike
PS – You requested, and I listened. My new ebook on private finance is within the works! Get on the checklist for The Cash Behavior and get the within scoop on life-changing money programs! CLICK HERE
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