A few years ago I was thinking… I do that a lot! I was thinking about time. I was thinking about how much time we spend on things and how that really impacts our lives. I was thinking about some small things that could have a huge impact on our lives.
If I’m being truly honest, what REALLY sparked this was thinking about travelling. Travelling is something I’m really passionate about. And again, if I’m being honest, I was actually trying to figure out how I could take an extra week off a year to travel and not have it impact my business. So, I started working backwards and this is the conclusion I came to…
My Observations
Let’s say you are working 50 hours in a work week. (Maybe its more, maybe its less for you…But just work with me here.) If you were to take 2 weeks off a year, (Again… maybe more, maybe less for you, but again, just work with me here!) that would be 50 weeks of work. If I wanted to “buy back” a week worth of work, you would have to work 50 hours extra over the course of the year so you could take an extra week off.
So for the sake of easy numbers, that’s 50 weeks and 50 hours. That works out to 1 hour per week. That seems doable right? If you just worked an extra hour a week, you could essentially buy back a week’s vacation for yourself. 1 hour a week working 5 days a week means you only need to work an extra 12 minutes a day.
12 MINUTES!
Imagine if you were focused enough to just spend an extra 12 minutes a day on something in your farm, you could buy yourself an extra 50 hours a year put towards that task. Maybe its writing blogs. Maybe its shooting video. Maybe its extra prospecting. Maybe its talking to some local businesses. Maybe its focused energy in your database. It could be anything, but the key is that its 12 minutes of focused work.
Looking at it like an actual farm, imagine if you planted a few extra seeds a day for an entire year, how much different would your crop be? How much more could you harvest from your farm with 12 minutes extra a day? We spend 12 minutes in line ups just to get coffee. We spend 12 minutes on hold waiting to talk to customer service. We spend 12 minutes waiting for equipment at the gym to be free. The reality is, 12 minutes a day isn’t a whole lot but it can accomplish a lot.
They key is that its an EXTRA 12 minutes. But you must be intentional about it for this to work. Because the exact opposite is true. For every 12 minutes you DON’T spend on focused work a day you are actually LOSING 50 hours a year worth of work. You essentially need to work an extra week every year just to make up for that lost time. 50 extra hours a year could absolutely change the trajectory of your business. (In a positive or a negative way!)
My Suggestion…
So what am I suggesting? Well, I am suggesting you really take a look at what you are doing in your farm and begin to take your time more seriously. Are you buying yourself an extra week or are you costing yourself an extra week? Are you using your extra 12 minutes a day to GAIN market share in your farm or are you LOSING it because of 12 minutes? It may sound trivial in the moment, but those 12 mins a day add up.
I want to wrap up by putting it in perspective… The average sitcom is about 30 mins (with commercials) but I’m assuming most of you probably watch shows like I do on a streaming service. One show without commercials is about 22-24 mins. That’s 2x 12 mins a day….
Take Back Your Time
If you gave up watching just ONE show a day 5 days a week, that’s 100 HOURS a year you could put into buying back your time. I don’t know about you, but an extra 2-3 weeks’ vacation a year sure sounds nicer than watching a tv show every night. Just think what giving up an hour-long show could do for your time! I’m not here to say you shouldn’t have fun or enjoy your down time, but if you are willing to commit just 12 minutes a day, you could drastically change your business and your life.
Happy Farming!
Ryan Smith – Founder/Creator
Launch Your Farm
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