👋 Hey there!
🚅 This is issue #51 of the Double E Bullet where I share two action-packed bullets to help you go from full-time founder to part-time CEO.
Ever wonder how Elon Musk manages to pack what seems like a week’s worth of productivity into just 24 hours while running six companies? The answer isn’t merely about effective time management, it’s also about rockstar delegation. Think of him as the captain of a high-tech spaceship, directing his crew to handle various tasks while he steers the ship toward new frontiers. See what I did there? 😁
Yet, the challenge for most full-time founders with delegation is what & how to delegate. In this issue, I’m sharing an effective delegation framework so you can take inspiration from Musk’s playbook to supercharge your time management and productivity.
BULLET ONE
🧠 The framework is called Audit, Transfer & Fill and I came across it through Dan Martell and his “how to buy back time” loop. Here’s how it works:
Audit: Begin with a comprehensive time and energy audit of your daily schedule. Allocate 15-minute intervals to meticulously record each activity you engage in throughout your day. Afterward, revisit this log and use the color green to highlight the activities that invigorate and rejuvenate your energy levels, while marking those that drain your energy in red.
Subsequently, return to each activity and assess them in a manner akin to rating restaurants – use dollar signs to represent their cost, with $ symbolizing inexpensive tasks and $$$$ indicating costly ones. In essence, you’re questioning whether hiring someone to perform a particular activity would be an economical or extravagant choice.
Now, gather all the activities you’ve marked in red and tagged with a cheap dollar sign. These are the tasks you should consider delegating to another person, effectively freeing up your time and preserving your energy using the next step.
Transfer: Now, it’s time to play matchmaker. Match each of the activities in red with the ideal team member or collaborator. Consider their strengths, skill sets, and expertise however the key is to do this in the correct order. Dan shares an anecdote of a full-time founder hiring a new accountant because of an increased workload within the finance team; most companies and people do what Dan talks about, however in the wrong order.
For example, hiring a new accountant due to that increased workload seems to be the logical sequence. Until of course, you consider the fact that hiring an executive assistant to free up more accounting time is much cheaper than hiring a brand-new accountant. The executive assistant creates more time for the accounting work to be completed, instead of adding another accountant to an already strained workload.
Fill: Here comes the final part of this transformation. With your delegated tasks in capable hands, you have room to breathe. Use this newfound space to fill your schedule with strategic endeavours. Dive into high-impact projects, chart your business’s course, and make those visionary decisions that only you, the part-time CEO, can make.
While this may seem trivial and time-consuming, I’d love for you to suspend judgment and try this in earnest over the course of a fortnight; I’m confident about the changes it will bring for you!
BULLET TWO
📚 Buy Back Your Time – Dan Martell
Even though most of the concepts in this book aren’t brand new, Dan pushes the idea that we as full-time founders can’t personally outwork ourselves to a better business. The key construct is we only have twenty-four hours a day. Eventually, if we’re doing everything, we (or one of our relationships) will break down and hit what he calls the Pain Line; which is where he introduces The Buyback Principle, ie. don’t hire to grow the business, hire to buy back your time
Don’t have time to read the book. Click here for the summary of the book.
🧨 DHIREN’S UPDATES 🧨
As you’re reading this, I’m in the Maldives soaking in the serene beauty and tranquility of this paradise on Earth. As I take some time for rejuvenation and self-reflection, I couldn’t resist the urge to share a tantalizing tidbit with all of you about something extraordinary on the horizon.
In November, Preet, a dear friend & I will be hosting a retreat for modern men and we’re calling it ahem, The Modern Man Retreat. It’s an opportunity for like minded men to share, grow & recalibrate ahead of 2024, and I’ve been using my time here in the Maldives for some reconnaissance work, fine-tuning the details to create an awesome experience.
While I don’t want to give away too much just yet, I can assure you that the Modern Man Retreat will be an unforgettable journey, designed to empower you, challenge you, and help you tap into your fullest potential. Think of it as an investment in yourself, a chance to break free from the ordinary and embrace the extraordinary.
If you’re interested, I’d love for you to fill in the application form and register your interest; will take less than 2 minutes. Click here to fill in the form.
That’s all for this edition! What was your favorite bullet?