MGR Lifestyle TipsIn The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs, I expressed very clearly how I consider TIME my most valuable asset today.  So now, based on that premise, I’ve been making number of adjustments in my life habits trying to maximize and optimize how I spend my time each day.

Among other things, I’ve quit a number of “jobs” that were taking a lot of my time, especially my most valuable leisure time.  So what jobs have I quit?

Well, for starters, I no longer mow my lawn or maintain the yard since I decided to quit my Landscaper job.  Instead, now I “outsource” that job to other professional landscapers.  They come to my house, do the job ten times better and faster than me, I pay them and it’s done!  2-3 hours saved that I can now dedicate to other more rewarding tasks.

I don’t wash my cars in the driveway either.  Yes, it was kind of cool when I got my first car many eons ago, but now?  no thanks.   A ten minute trip to the car wash saves me a lot of time and helps me make money doing something else.

The third job that I very gladly quit is pool maintenance.  What a pain that was! and of course, the pool always needs something at the most inconvenient time!  No more time wasted for me!  Outsourced that one too.

And a few days later,  I also decided to quit my accounting job.  This one was hard to leave since I’ve done a lot of budgeting and accounting for my business since the beginning of time.  But I had to let it go.  I’ve decided that it is not very productive for me to spend time dealing with invoices or receivables for projects already done, when I can spend the same time looking at new strategies and getting new business that instead, bring additional revenues for the company.

Wow! four jobs quit so far and I’m not done yet!  So just recently, I decided to quit my Project Coordinator job too.  I’ve already written another article about “The Art of Delegation” so I decided to practice what I preach.  I already have the best team in the world, so in reality, I wasn’t contributing much by simply trafficking projects back and forth and getting my Inbox flooded every day.  So now, I discuss marketing ideas with my clients, share my input, plan the strategy, but once the project starts,  I let my Project Coordinators handle the rest.

The point is that while trying to “save” some money doing some of these jobs myself, it was actually costing me valuable time that I could dedicate to do what I know how to do best that also brings more revenues for my business.  Think about it.  How much time are you spending on some task that you could easily assign to someone else who is better suited for the job?  And how much more revenue can you potentially bring to your business or your household if you spent that same time doing what you’re really good at?

Is saving $10 on a car wash worth an hour of your time?  Especially your leisure time?  If I told you that I want to hire you for $10/hr you would laugh at me… yet most people decide that spending an hour washing a car, or in line to get a free movie ticket, or waiting for a free burger is time well spent.  It’s not like we all have unlimited time on the planet!  Add a real value to your time and see how quickly your perspective will change.

I still spend time tuning my Kart or doing some other handy jobs around the house because those are hobbies and I have a good time doing it.  But the moment I realize that a particular job is not going to be fun, I outsource it right away!

So there you have it!  Tell me what jobs are you willing to quit and how you’re willing to spend your newly found time!  and if you decide to spend that time just playing with your kids and hanging out with your life partner, you will be acting like the wealthiest and smartest person in the world!

Now I need to hire somebody to fix my garage door…  because I’m quitting that job too.

Until next time, this is Manuel Gil del Real (MGR)