Over the course of time, I have learned a great deal about how to reach financial freedom. One of the biggest things that for some reason is very hard to do is to give up control over every single task that needs to get done to reach financial freedom, and instead focus on the $10,000 an hour tasks and delegate all the $10 an hour ones. What I mean by this is simple. The majority of people find themselves doing low level tasks that need to get done in their business or life. They feel as though by doing these tasks themselves, they are saving money that would be spent on others, and that no one could do it better than them. Taking a step back from your day-to-day tasks and auditing your time will give you a clear indication of whether or not this is the type of person you are. In order to reach the next level of financial freedom, you must free yourself of these menial tasks and open your time up to focus on the things that will bring you the greatest ROI (return on investment). Time is an investment, and time is also limited, so budgeting your time to do the things that will create the biggest gains for yourself is one of if not the most core principle of achieving financial freedom. The most important first step is to audit your time and see what you are spending the majority of your day doing.
Auditing your time
To do this, you must log everything you do during the course of the day and then analyze it. For me, I write down my daily schedule on the white board right in front of my desk every day so I know what I am going to be doing and when before the day even begins. If you don’t do this or something similar, chances are you are wasting a lot of time during the day without even realizing it. Start this habit today by writing down everything you do on a day-to-day basis for a week. Analyze what you spend most of your time doing and what that task gave you in return. Did you enjoy what you did? Did you focus your time on the most rewarding tasks? How much of what you did could have easily been done by someone else and in turn saved you time? These are some of the questions to ponder when analyzing your time usage. The ultimate analysis of your time can be done when you are able to distinguish $10 an hour tasks from $10,000 an hour ones. When taking a step back and analyzing time usage, it will be easier to pinpoint which one you spend the majority of your time doing.
What makes a $10 an hour task different than a $10,000 an hour one?
A $10 an hour task is something that may take little skill or be something that you are bad at or don’t enjoy. For example, in real estate, cold calling can be defined as a $10 an hour task in my opinion. My criteria are simple that allows me to put it in this category. Anyone can cold call. It takes up a lot of time, and that time could be spent doing something else that would give me a higher ROI for my time. In contrast, a $10,000 for me would be talking to someone on the phone who has went through that cold calling filter and is looking to list their home with me. This conversation takes up a fraction of the time and is infinitely more valuable to me than sitting punching in numbers on my phone all day. If I spend the majority of my time talking to hot leads that have already gone through a filter, I have increased the ROI on my time 100000x! This is just one of the examples from my life that I have differentiated a $10 an hour task from a $10,000 task. The key point to remember here is that time is a limited and vital resource, and whenever you choose to utilize your time to do something, you must first analyze whether or not that task will have an appropriate ROI for you to do yourself and even if it something that needs to be done in general.
The mindset Shift
If you are able to make the shift from a $10 hour person to a $10,000 an hour person, you will quickly be able to analyze your time usage, increase your motivation, and scale to financial freedom than you ever would have thought possible. By being able to make quick decisions on what you are best at, what brings you the most joy, what can and should be delegated, and what you can do to give you the highest ROI on your time, you will increase your productivity and reach an echelon very few can or will. Make sure that before you do anything, ask yourself whether or not you should be doing it, and if you could be doing something that would be better for your time. Refusing the do these lower-level tasks will develop you into a leader that will be a master at utilizing your time to the best of your abilities.
Recognizing and Breaking away from $10 an hour tasks
If you want to reach financial freedom, you must understand the value of time. Knowing what your time is best spent doing is the most important thing to reach the next level of success. Saying no to doing lower-level tasks will propel you upwards and quickly form you into a time ROI machine. At first, you may feel guilty about this new way of utilizing time. However, it is so important to understand that this is the fast-track way to reach financial freedom, and that your time will feel so much more rewarding while using this method.