Today is “take back your time day”. However, prioritising your time & recognising it’s true value, is something you should do everyday. Your time is highly valuable! It’s also the one thing you can never get back, or create more of. So, use your time wisely. Learn to do less, to achieve more, & maximise your productivity, improve your work / life balance, & ultimately success…
Take Back Your Time: The Leadership advantage of letting go
Today is take back your time day, a timely reminder that time is the one resource we can’t create more of. Therefore our time is highly valuable. Perhaps even priceless.
However, we can choose how we spend our time, and considering how best to spend your time is well worth taking a moment to think about.
For senior business leaders, that choice carries particular weight.
The demands of leadership often mean every minute feels spoken for. Meetings, strategic decisions, mentoring, firefighting, the list can be endless.
The instinct, especially for those who’ve built their business from the ground up, or are running an SME, is to take on more, to save time or money, by trying to do everything themselves.
But as Dan Martell highlights in his book Buy Back Your Time, that mindset can be one of the most costly leadership habits of all.
The Leadership Paradox: Doing more, achieving less
Many leaders believe that keeping control over every detail is efficient. Their thoughts being, if they can do it themselves, then they should. Yet, this is in fact misguided.
In Dan Martell’s best selling book, on how to build a thriving business empire, while also living your best life, reframes this thinking with a powerful truth:
“If you don’t buy back your time, you’ll eventually buy back your business — at a discount.”
In other words, the hours you spend on lower value tasks, no matter how competently done, are hours not spent leading, innovating, or creating the future.
The real cost isn’t the salary of an assistant, consultant, or outsourced specialist.
It’s the cost of missed opportunities, and the impact of what you’re not doing, while managing tasks that you should be delegating.
Business owners & senior leaders can often feel isolated. It can be a lonely place at the top.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. The most successful leaders aren’t afraid to ask for help. Discover more…
From efficiency to effectiveness
High performing leaders know that effective leadership isn’t about doing everything; it’s about doing the right things.
The best executives protect their time ruthlessly. Not out of ego.
But because they recognise their highest value work sits in vision, relationships, and decision-making.
“this shift from doing to delegating doesn’t just create personal breathing space; it creates organisational growth”
This shift from doing to delegating doesn’t just create personal breathing space.
Most importantly, it creates organisational growth.
When leaders model trust, empowerment, and strategic focus, teams follow suit.
Delegation becomes a cultural norm.
A signal that time is respected. Priorities are clear, and performance isn’t measured by busyness, but by impact.
Practical ways to take back your time
Whether you’re a CEO, a director, or simply feeling stretched too thin, here are a few ways to start buying back your time:
Audit your calendar
Monitor where your time really goes. Look at which activities you’re spending your time on are drive long term results, and which could be automated, delegated, or eliminated?
Invest in delegation
Hiring the right talent isn’t an expense; it’s an asset. Build a team whose skills complement yours, and plug your skills gaps, (we all have strengths and weaknesses, recognising your own is vital to success.) so you can focus your time on what you do best, and tasks that only you can do.
Revisit your “yes”
Every new commitment you make has a time cost. Be intentional with your “yes” and generous with your “no.
Set time boundaries
Leadership requires clarity. Guard your focus time, limit context switching, and model healthy time practices for you and your team.
Embrace systems & support
From hiring executive assistants, the right talent, through to outsourcing to specialists, leveraging the right support enables scale, both personal and organisational.
A message for everyone
Although this article focuses on leaders, it’s important to point out that Take Back Your Time Day is for everyone. Equally, prioritising your time, and recognising it’s value, should be done everyday, not just today.
Whether you manage a business, a team, or your own career, the principle is the same: time is your most valuable currency. Spend it intentionally, and you’ll not only be investing in your success, but your wellbeing too.
Taking back your time isn’t about working less, it’s about working smarter. When you reclaim your hours for strategy, creativity, connection, and also your free time, you’ll elevate your own performance, improve your work / life balance, and leaders will raise their organisation’s potential too.
As Dan Martell reminds us, “You don’t hire people to grow your business. You hire people to buy back your time.” And when leaders truly understand the value of their time, that’s when growth becomes sustainable, purposeful, and human.
How highly do you value your time?
If you value your time highly, and would like to reclaim some of it back, whether to increase your success, productivity, work life balance, and / or wellbeing, then today – Take back your time day is a good day to start.
The fact is working hard doesn’t guarantee success. Working smart is a far better way to achieve maximise results, and maximise your true potential.
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