How to Add an Extra 10 Hours to Your Week

One of the issues that comes up again and again when I look behind the scenes of Financial Planning businesses is too many people who are overwhelmed, too much to do and not enough time to do it in…

In fact…, you’re probably spending more and more time at the office or in front of a computer screen than you are in front of clients or with your family…! Am I right?

One of – if not the most important issues in a modern financial planning business is Productivity! And how your business model is structured.

I’ve had soooo many people say to me: “Steve, if I just had one extra day per week to get stuff done would be soooo helpful… There’s too much to do and I can’t get it all done…”

An extra day a week in your life would help right?

That’s I’ve created The 10 Hour Advantage.

It’s about how you can find an extra 10 hours per week that you can decide what you do with…

It could be to use the time to see more clients… It could be freeing up some time to get a few more plans done or some strategy notes off your desk…

Or it could be some time to work on your marketing or getting out to improve your Alliance partnerships or Networking relationships…

Some people might want to take some more time with their family

Some might just want to Play Golf, go Fishing or get your Nails done!

Whatever it is for you, THE 10 Hour Advantage’ll help you focus on what matters most.

A big part of my role working with financial planners is that I get to see the Good, the Bad and the downright UGLY when it comes to the ‘mechanics’ of how financial planning businesses work.

People trust me and open up their hearts – and tell me exactly HOW IT IS behind the scenes…

And I love that. It’s a real honour to be in that trusted position.

But one thing that’s been annoying me more and more lately is just how much time and work people are having to put in… just to get the same outcome.

In fact, I just jumped off a call this morning where the lady was telling me that she was in Absolute Overwhelm!

Just the sheer volume of tasks she had to get thru and how she just had to ‘PLOUGH through’ to get them all done…!!

And I said – “Yeah RIGHT! PLOUGH through…?

Isn’t that where you stand behind one of those BIG PLOUGH HORSES and strap on a harness and plough through the fields all day till your fingers bleed and you can’t walk anymore – from sun up til sunset…?”

Isn’t that what ‘Ploughing Through’ means…?

Let’s not do that in your business OK? Lets think of a better way.

There’s a guy here in Australia called Craig Rispin – he’s a FUTURIST!

He helps Companies & Corporates to see the future. Predict the trends. Figure out where the world is going and get their company ahead of the puck and be the leaders in their space… (like Wayne Gretzksi says).

Great guy. Really smart cat! And he goes into these companies and is hired to help these big companies Innovate, predict the future and get their Technology, Marketing, HR and set it up for success.

And the big challenge that he’s had is that when he wants people to Innovate…

They say “yes, we want to innovate, but we just don’t have the capacity to take on any more than what we’re already doing…!”

So he’s had to change his entire program.

So that now, the very first thing he does is every time he comes into a business… Instead of getting them to Innovate – he says:

“Yes, we’ll get to the innovation part soon… But the first thing we’re going to do is I’m going to help you be more efficient and more effective with your time and your recourses… Right up front, I’m going to free up 1 day per week!

1 Day per week.

On the proviso that you use 2 of those days every month, and use them with me on Innovation…!

Have we got a deal…?

Lets ELIMINATE first, then we can free up some space to INNOVATE!!”

And he makes this deal with new clients before they start working together.

So the idea is FREEDOM FIRST – INNOVATION SECOND!

Now, there are actually 5 Key Principles to the 10 Hour Advantage System…

Today I’m going to share principle number 4 which is ELIMINATION – NOT EFFICIENCY!!

And I can hear you saying that “how can I eliminate stuff when I’ve already got too much to do…?”

Well the truth is that you’re NOT going to get more efficient…!

I’m not the ‘efficiency guy’…!

Think about it… Technology, emails, and all these new systems they push on you… do you feel more efficient…?

The answer is usually a resounding HELL NO!

Most people actually feel more snowed under…

And I don’t believe in all that ‘tracking your time in 15 minute increments’ garbage either…

Writing down what you’ve been doing every 15 minutes to make sure you’re on track…

I personally manage my time in weeks and months and quarters against Results and Outcomes and Dollars in the Bank.

I’m a big picture kind of guy…

I reckon too many financial planners are getting too caught up in the MICRO side of their businesses…!

So… The reality is… There is actually NO 10 Extra Hours in a week!

Sorry, there is still only 168 hours in a week…

So I don’t care how much more efficient you get with your time, you just can’t create another 10 hours in the week for yourself.

You just can’t!

I’m sorry – I’ve got bad news – I don’t actually have another 10 hours a week to give you…!

We’re going to find it!

It’s going to come out of the 168 hours that exist right now…!

And there’s 2 ways you can try do that.

Number One – there’s efficiency – I’m going to get really, really efficient (like I just talked about…)

I’m going to get quicker at managing my emails.

And I’m going to get smarter at managing my minutes.

I’m going to micromanage my time.

I’m going to HUSSLE more and be more efficient with what I’m doing…

And that’s all-cool and please, do that if you can. It might help a bit…

But the real advantage is NOT going to be from efficiencies.

The real advantage is going to come from ELIMINATION! We’re going to cut some stuff out of your life and free up space and time around you!

And, you’re already really busy… so I just want you to know that the key ISN’T to try and cram more into your week.

Efficiency’s NOT your answer here.

Elimination is!

We want to work on ESSENTIALISM!

Like, is this ESSENTIAL…

The extra time is going to come from cutting off things that:

Aren’t essential.

Aren’t client facing.

Aren’t income producing.

Aren’t core activities of a financial planner.

Once you figure that out,

We can Eliminate it.

We can Delegate it.

We can Automate it.

We can negotiate our way out of it and hand the responsibility for that thing to someone else who’s better equipped to handle it than you…!

So it’s Elimination – not Efficiency that’s the core way of adding the 10!

So that’s your Boost Your Business productivity tip for this week.

Think about some what you’re doing day to day and whether it’s the activities of a highly functional, high performing financial planner…

Or is it something that could be delegated to someone else (who is probably better at that task than you…)?

Don’t worry about the WHO just now, I want you to start with the WHAT.

I’ve got a great set of worksheets to help you do this excercise quicker..

They’re called the Add 10 Advantage Worksheets.

You can grab a set of them for yourself so that you can add 10 extra hours to your work week as well.

Just type in the word ADD 10 – into the comments box and I’ll get my Secret Squirrel Chat Bot to shoot one out for you.

ADD 10 in the comments and start to eliminate the TRASH out of your world today.

Would that be useful?

I want to help you free up your time to.

In the meantime, quick question for you…

And I’d love it if you could type into the question box and lets chat about it in there…

WHATS THE HARDEST PART ABOUT GETTING IT ALL DONE…?

When it comes to juggling all the various tasks and responsibilities you’ve got in your biz…

Being pulled from pillar to post.

Everyone wants your attention…

The volume keeps building….

What do you find hardest about getting it all done?

I’d love to know what you think

Lets see what the bottlenecks are in your business.