As an entrepreneur, it can get difficult to have ‘free time’. Time to spare and do what you want to. It’s tough being in business — we hear you! If you feel like you love your work but also love vacations, adventure, downtime with your family, and time to reset, our episode on ‘Making Bank S7 E35’ is for you.

Focus On What Matters
Think of your ideal day. What does it look like, hour-to-hour? What time would you want to wake up? Kick-start the day with a run? Or journaling? Heavy breakfast, or a late brunch? Figure out whether a perfect evening involves work, or a beach walk with the family. Is it the best time to ideate or cycle around town? There is no right answer; you need to understand what works for you. Once you focus on your time you become better at owning it. You don’t lose hours because you focus on every aspect of your day.

Hire The Right People
If there are jobs you can hire people to do, go straight ahead and get them on board. Free yourself and buy back your time. There is not enough time in the day to do everything by yourself. It is important to delegate well. You could give one person more than one job. Identify their skills and capitalize on their strengths. Before you do this you must understand what areas you need help in. There will be parts of your business that bring you down. Areas that you don’t excel at and therefore don’t enjoy doing. Figure out what these are and don’t hesitate to get help.

Learn To Say No
As an entrepreneur, you will be juggling a lot. Look at what is on your plate and it might surprise you to know that there is a lot you didn’t have to take on. It is important to know when to say ‘no’. Not every request deserves your time and energy. You will also receive networking requests from people who want to learn from you. Newcomers who want ‘just a few minutes of your time.’ Instead of turning them down, you could say ‘no’ but also leave them feeling heard. It helps to have standard answers to FAQs. Maybe answers to what they’re looking for, or standard email responses that redirect them elsewhere.

Get To The Point
We waste a lot of time beating around the bush, be it in business or our personal lives. Keep meetings brief. If someone asks for a 60-minute meeting, try bringing it down to 30 minutes. It is likely to be more efficient. Have a set agenda. Involve people that will contribute. If a discussion is being hijacked by other topics, reschedule for another day. When expressing your needs to the team, be specific. Think of your conversation as sticking to a script — don’t go off-topic.

Just like most things in life, managing your time is something you will get better at with practice. It does take effort to prioritize and schedule your day, and to stick to it. But taking these steps will help you get efficient and leave you with the time that you are free to use as per your wish!