We’ve got the formula for maximising your time

Ange
God, tell us what you really think, Andy. You know what? It’s hard when your to-do list feels like it gets longer every day, and I guess tasks just keep piling up. You and I are known for fulfilling our plate really full. You know, owning Dr. Drip. We operate our trade education business, Lifestyle Tradie. We run around after two super sporty kids with intense training schedules. Yeah. Plus everything else on top of that.

Andy
He can definitely say that, again.

Ange
We constantly wish there was more time and a day, but complaining that we have no time isn’t gonna change anything. The reality is we all only have 24 hours in a day. So how do you make the most of it?

Andy
Well, to answer that, I wanna start with what is filling your plate right now? You know, what’s taking up all of your time? You need to make sure that you’re consuming your time with the right tasks. Now you’re probably sitting there saying, what does this guy know about how I use my time? Well, honestly, I’ve worked with so many trade business owners, and let’s face it, we don’t always use our time wisely, or we want to take too much on and we go into absolute overload.

Ange
Yeah. And there are real world consequences of trying to cram in too much into your day. Burnout is massive with the trade business owners, and especially when you wear every hat. Maybe you’re on the tools eight hours a day. You are managing the team, you’re executing marketing, you’re doing all the quotes, you’re chasing debt, and sometimes it can just get all too much.

Andy
Yeah. And it’s no surprise that many tradies out there end up running themselves into the ground. The only way to get more time back in your day is to get organized. You know what, Ange and I both keep personal diaries. Everything we do is scheduled into it from kids pick up and drop off to team meetings. Even Ange’s hair appointments are scheduled a year in advance. .

Ange
Yeah. Well funny that you joke about that. But yeah, I do schedule my hair appointments a year in advance because if I don’t plan it, they simply don’t happen.

Andy
It was interesting, I was talking to one of my mates up in Boron Bay. Terrible place in the world to live.

Ange
Shocking.

Andy
Um, and I, he was just telling how under the pump he was and how bogged down he was, and, and I was having a chat with him about what he could do about it. And I, and I said, well, what do you really love? And he’s love is surfing. And I’m like, right, so you’re an awesome surfer. He is like, nah, I’m not a good surfer, but I love surfing. And I’m like, well, what you need to do is you need to put it in your diary and make sure you do it. And he goes, you know what? I’ve tried that Andy, and I’ll put it in my diary. But there’s always a job that comes up. There’s always something the wife brings up. It always gets pushed to the side, and I never get a chance to go surfing, and I’m like, ah, that’s crazy. Anyway, we finished the conversation. I talked to him about two weeks ago and I said to him, how are you doing? Are you getting a chance to go surfing? He said he is. And I was like, wow. So I said, so what’s changed? He said, you know what? I realize that if it’s a customer’s book something in, or if it’s a doctor’s appointment, book something in, or if it’s a personal trainer book something in, I always make it. So I went out and I found a surfing coach and I paid him money. Because I didn’t wanna let him down. So then I made sure I went surfing all the time and now I’m surfing twice a week. So sometimes you just gotta dig a bit deeper on how you can do what you love.

Ange
Yeah. He was found accountable, right? That’s awesome. Sometimes we just need an extra push or a bit of motivation.

Andy
Exactly. You’ll always have an excuse of why you’re too busy, but if you can commit to it, book it in your calendar like you are meeting with a customer. Then it becomes a priority. Like my mate, he goes weekly because he’s made the time for it and he’s holding himself accountable. It seems so simple. Really, you need to make time for yourself.

Ange
Yeah. If you wanna make the best of your time and get back into doing what you love, like your story, then you need to have a scheduling system like this that allows you to book and block it out in your time. We’ve actually shared a free journal in the show notes, so I do suggest you check it out.

Andy
I know what you’re thinking, right? Journaling. Yeah. Right. No way. . Well, tradies, I’m telling you, it’s the first step to getting more time back in your day. It will tell you what you are already doing with your time.

Ange
Yeah, that’s right. In fact, I challenge every listener for the next two weeks. Every time you do something, even a tiny thing, I want you to write it down. Now that’s probably going to be a huge list, right? And you knew you were busy, but physically getting it out of your head and onto a page will be the best reality check there is.

Andy
Look at each task and consider if you are actually the right person to be doing this. You’re trying to find time, right? So ask yourself, what are the tasks you are currently doing now? And perhaps you shouldn’t be doing those tasks. What I mean by this is consider your billable time as a business owner and how much you are worth an hour. You may say a hundred dollars, $200, $500 an hour.

Ange
Yeah, billable times, everything.

Andy
If you’ve got a big team, but you’re still running around dropping off trailers or materials to the boys on site, let’s face it, it is a waste of your time, especially when one of your boys costs you up to $60 an hour and you are running around doing the heavy lifting.

Ange
Yeah. You’d be better off using your time, working on your business, not in it.

Andy
Yeah, but I get it though. If you aren’t doing something active, you feel a little bit lazy, but as the business owner, the business needs you in other ways. You’ve gotta stop spending time doing things that just don’t benefit the business and your life. You’ve gotta cut it out right now.

Ange
Yeah. I think it’s also important to mention that being busy for busy’s sake is absolutely ridiculous, and not managing your time as a business owner is just as bad.

Andy
I caught up with a mate of mine once, and he was terrible with time management so bad that his wife booked him into a time management course. I bumped into him a few weeks later, I said, How was that time management course? And he went, ah, you wouldn’t believe it, Andy. I was just too busy and I couldn’t even make it . And I thought to myself, are you kidding, mate? But that is the typical tradie out there, just too busy even to help themselves. And I hear so many tradies say, no one can do it as good as me, or it’s faster if I do it myself. I know everyone out there is nodding, aren’t you? Every single one of you, what you need to be doing is consider where you can pay someone else less money where your business can gain more.

Ange
Exactly. The thing is, I think tradies get so caught up in turning the wheels in their business that although their family is often their number one priority, they fall into a trap of the business coming first, but there is a way to turn this around. You have to block out your big rocks 12 months in advance, and that way you don’t miss anything super important.

Andy
Big rocks. What do you mean by that?

Ange
Well, essentially think of your life in terms of big rocks, little rocks and sand. Your big rocks in life are birthdays, anniversaries, holidays you wanna take in the year. Your little rocks might be short weekend trips away, mini monthly health kicks, say to cleanse or yearly tax. And sand is the small stuff like mowing the lawn, housework, taking the car in for service, that sort of thing. Big rocks must come first in your calendar and then you book the little rocks and then the sand. And that way we don’t miss out on the important things.

Andy
Yeah, right. So for us, an example of our big rocks are our kids. You know, we’ve got Isaac and Hannah who are both hitting those team years in a super, super sporty. Between their sporting schedules and then you and I are just super busy as well. Isaac is a soccer player and we do something for him most mornings and afternoons, so I’ve built my business to start at 9:00 AM and to end at 3:00 PM so I can always be there for him.

Ange
Yeah, it’s the same with Hannah. She’s 15 and trains to be an Olympic diver. I drive her to and from training pretty much every day.

Andy
So that’s a long way.

Ange
Yeah, and that’s in my calendar as a big rock cuz it has to happen. Big rocks are the things that are most important to you.

Andy
But no matter what stage it is, if these big rocks aren’t planned for ahead of time and blocked out in your calendar, they just won’t happen. It’s not a coincidence that when you book a holiday for two weeks, say to go to Port Douglas comes off, it’s because you’ve agreed and booked it well in advance.

Ange
Yeah, that’s right. Imagine if you’ve done this in reverse and put all your sand items into your calendar first, as an example. Then little rocks, and then big rocks. It’s gotta be done the other way around. And it’s not a luxury that life rolls like this. It’s because we block these commitments at first and then we build everything else around them. We build our business to work for us and we plan ahead so that we don’t waste our days.

Andy
And it also removes so much stress in our life and ensures we don’t miss the important things.

Ange
Yeah, so many tradies we speak to feel really guilty because they barely have enough time in the day to get their work tasks done, but they seem to never have enough time for their own families or friends.

Andy
You’re not wrong. I mean, I remember the days when I put the business ahead of the family, you know, the business was my responsibility and hence, it felt like it was my first priority. In those days, I’d leave in the early hours of the morning and get back late at night. That often I’d even miss the kids going to bed. What’s worse is sometimes I’d still come home early with the phone attached to my head, and if the kids were up and about, I’d just head straight to the study and keep working. I. Absolutely hated it. I felt like I was drowning in the business and I was missing out on so many fun things with the family, but I was being hit with something different every day, and I just felt so overwhelmed by it all.

Ange
Well, in reality, it’s not that you were being hit with different things, you just did everything yourself, and then with the time you did have, you weren’t really organized, so it probably just felt that way.

Andy
Yeah, you’re right. But you know what? At the time I thought I was doing the best I possibly could, but in reality, I needed to stop wasting time doing things I shouldn’t and be okay to hand over some tasks to the team. This was the only way I was ever gonna get more time back in my day.

Ange
Yes, it all starts with big rocks, little rocks and sand. If you block these 12 months in advance, the big rocks. You won’t miss important things in life.

Andy
Look at it this way. Your time is super valuable as a business owner, and you really need to stop doing things you just shouldn’t and hand them over to your team so that you can start using your time on things. We would class as profit producing activities like working out your true hourly rate. Training a team to sell better or putting systems and procedures in play.

Ange
Yes. So now that we’ve talked about what is and isn’t worth your time, let’s talk about how you can delegate the tasks that you need to stop doing. You can download our template, the time maximizer in the show notes. It’ll really give you a hand, cause it’s gonna show you how to gain back four to six hours in your week.

Andy
Four to six hours minimum, I’d say. Mm. Like we said before, there are a number of things you’ve just gotta stop doing tasks that cost you more to do than it would cost for someone else to do. If you can delegate to the right person and set them up to succeed, you can’t go wrong.

Ange
Correct. This is where systems come in. We use systems to train the team the exact way that we want something to be done. You have to start by writing down the process step by step. This means you only need to train them once and then they can refer back to it. It is a huge time saver. Also be really critical about your personal time. Like is watching TV for two hours every night a good use of your time? And could it be completely scrapped and replaced with a business podcast, perhaps?

Andy
Ooh, like The Tradie Show.

Ange
That’s right. So remember, getting back time in your day is great, especially when you were perhaps overworked and facing burnout and although there are no doubt things you need to do as a business owner, more important profit producing tasks don’t feel like you need to replace the hours you gained back with more tasks that could be done by someone else.

Andy
I’m chatting with a lot of trade business owners and, and everyone is saying that it’s feeling quite overwhelmed and burned out at the moment. And there’s one thing I’ve really noticed, Ange, and that is once you’ve hit this age of 40 plus, the pressures just seem to be so much higher. And when we were 20 and 30, and we could definitely deal with it then, but now it just seems to be a whole nother level.

Ange
Yeah. At some stage, I guess you really just might break, right?

Andy
Yeah. I like to look at it like you’re driving an old car up the freeway and you’re gonna go from, say Sydney to the Gold Coast. It’s gonna take you nine, 10 hours. . If you sit in an old car doing 7,000 revs and you’re just giving it to it the whole way up, something’s more than likely gonna go wrong. You’re gonna blow a hose, a head gasket, all something’s gonna go wrong. And I believe that’s like us older people now, that if we keep working at these high revs, Something is gonna go wrong and we definitely don’t wanna do that.

Ange
Yeah, they’re actually really great points. You do need to be really careful not to push yourself too much. So we’ve covered so much today, so I’m keen to actually just do a little bit of a recap of what our key takeouts are. So one, what I want you to do, guys, is download our two week journal and use it to capture your time because it’s a really, really great starting point for a reality check. Two, I want you to consider what tasks are and aren’t worth your time. This is all about what you are worth. I’m talking about what is your hourly rate? Because if someone else can do it for less money, then you seriously need to hand it over. And three, when delegating tasks, make sure you set the person up to succeed by creating a system or a guide to complete the task. In that way, you only have to teach them once. And four, like I said, please block out your calendar with your big rocks first, and then put in your little rocks and sand and do it well in advance. That way you’re not gonna miss the milestones with your family. This priority is so critical to you. And maybe just maybe you’ll be brave enough to do this 12 months out like we do.

Andy
You know, if you’re really struggling with your time or you’re just not sure what tasks you can delegate, then seriously guys, let’s chat. Click on the strategy session in the show notes or head to our website, lifestyletradie.com.au. And you and I can chat one-on-one about your personal situation and how you too can get yourself back on track. And guess what guys? It is completely free.

Ange
Absolutely. And I can’t wait for next week cuz we were joined by Verity, founder of TradieWives and longtime friend of Lifestyle Tradie. Tradies, don’t you guys tune out? Cuz if you have a partner in the business, then you should tune in because we’re actually gonna be talking about how to work together, not against each other. Grab a glass of wine or beer or maybe a cup and have a listen together because we are gonna share skills and ideas that are going to benefit you both.

Andy
Catch you next time.