Free Time

1. Embrace the Free Time Framework: Align, Design, Assign

"Free Time is a philosophy and a framework."

Align: Ensure your work aligns with your values, energy, and strengths. This stage involves setting agile operating principles, creating an externalized mind for your business, and systematizing the spirit of your work.

Design: Create processes for ideal outcomes and impact. This stage focuses on inviting nonlinear breakthroughs, applying serendipity as a business strategy, and designing deep work containers.

Assign: Delegate tasks effectively to your team. This stage emphasizes constructing a Delightfully Tiny Team, doubling how much you delegate, and saving someone next steps.

• The framework helps free up your mind, time, and team
• It allows everyone to do more of their best work
• Applying this framework is an ongoing process for continuous improvement

2. Create an externalized mind for your business

"No piece of information about the business (or your clients) lives only in someone's mind—yours or your team's. None. Nothing."

Manager Manual: Develop a comprehensive, cloud-based Manager Manual that serves as your business's externalized mind. This document should contain:

• Operating principles
• Detailed processes for each area of the business
• Style guide with brand guidelines

Benefits:

• Reduces cognitive load on team members
• Ensures consistency in operations and brand representation
• Facilitates easier onboarding and knowledge transfer

Use tools like Notion or other wiki-like platforms to create a central location for all business information, making it easily searchable and updatable by the entire team.

3. Invite nonlinear breakthroughs and serendipity

"Open yourself up to the possibility that results can happen quickly, spontaneously, serendipitously, joyfully, easefully."

Nonlinear breakthroughs (NLBs): Embrace the idea that success doesn't always follow a linear path. Be open to unexpected sharp turns of clarity or success.

• Ask for an NLB in areas where you feel stuck
• Look for examples of NLBs in your field to prove they're possible
• Use the phrase "If this is in the highest good, I invite a nonlinear breakthrough"

Serendipity as strategy: Plant "serendipity popcorn kernels" by consistently releasing small experiments or pilots into the world. This approach can lead to:

• Unexpected opportunities
• Increased visibility
• New connections and collaborations

Remember, you can't control outcomes, but you can create conditions for serendipity to occur.

4. Design deep work containers and batch tasks

"We all know how elusive that dynamic focus can be, making it all the more important to systematize deep work time amidst a world of fractured, digital distraction."

Deep work containers: Schedule uninterrupted, focused time for your most important work. This can include:

• Deep work days (two per week)
• Deep work weeks (one per month)
• Deep work months (two per year)

Batch tasks: Group similar activities to be done at regular intervals, rather than scattered throughout your schedule. This approach:

• Reduces context-switching
• Increases efficiency
• Allows for greater focus on high-impact work

Examples of batching:

• Content creation (podcasts, blog posts, newsletters)
• Meetings (client calls, team check-ins)
• Administrative tasks (bookkeeping, expense categorization)

5. Construct a Delightfully Tiny Team

"What makes a team delightfully tiny is up to you, the leader, to decide based on the intersection of three things: your strengths and energy, your current strategic projects, and desired outcomes for your team or business."

Ideal team size: Aim for a team of 3-4 members, including yourself. This size:

• Provides stability (compared to working solo or in pairs)
• Reduces complexity in communication
• Allows for specialization and backup

Team structure: Consider the following when building your team:

• Complement your skills and weaknesses
• Look for members who enjoy the work you don't
• Hire specialists for specific projects or tasks

Remember, a Delightfully Tiny Team is big enough to share strategic work but small enough to avoid unnecessary complexity and overhead.

6. Double how much you delegate

"Even if you delegate 80 percent of the work you know you do not need to do, there is a good chance that you are still secretly hoarding an unnecessary, and unproductive, 20 percent."

Identify tasks to delegate: Use the Five T's audit to determine what to offload:

1. Tiny tasks
2. Tedious tasks
3. Time-consuming tasks
4. Tasks you're terrible at
5. Time-sensitive tasks

Delegation strategies:

• Look for "$10,000 tasks" - high-value activities only you can do
• Use tools like Impact Filters to clarify project details before delegating
• Focus on "who not how" - find the right person instead of figuring out how to do it yourself

Start with project-based or part-time help to build trust and see results before expanding your team further.

7. Systematize listening and answering

"Every question, from a team member or a customer, lives three lives."

Always Be Listening (ABL): Implement systems to continuously gather feedback from your community and clients. This can include:

• Ongoing surveys
• Post-purchase questionnaires
• Regular check-ins with team members and clients

Three lives of a question:

1. The original ask and answer
2. Documentation in your Manager Manual
3. Addition to public-facing resources (FAQs, website updates)

By systematizing this process, you reduce repetitive work and create a knowledge base that grows with your business.

8. Take responsibility and invite feedback

"You will be so much happier in the long run if you take responsibility for everything that happens, good and bad in your business."

Ownership mindset: Cultivate a culture where everyone takes responsibility for outcomes, regardless of who was technically at fault. This approach:

• Encourages problem-solving
• Reduces blame and defensiveness
• Leads to continuous improvement

Inviting feedback: Actively seek input from team members, clients, and partners. Create an environment where people feel safe to:

• Point out areas for improvement
• Share new ideas
• Disagree constructively

Remember, as a leader, you may need to go out of your way to solicit authentic reactions due to power dynamics.

9. Save someone next steps

"Save someone the next steps is a systems mindset. It means zooming out from the task at hand to anticipate what subtasks will follow."

Anticipate needs: Train your team to think beyond the immediate task and consider what might come next. This could involve:

• Scheduling follow-up appointments
• Providing additional resources or information
• Addressing potential questions or concerns proactively

Benefits:

• Improves customer experience
• Reduces back-and-forth communication
• Increases efficiency and trust within the team

Examples:

• When booking a flight, also arrange airport transportation
• When registering for an event, add it to the calendar with all relevant details
• When onboarding a new team member, create documentation for the next person in that role

By consistently saving others next steps, you create a smoother, more efficient operation that delights both team members and clients.

Last updated: October 16, 2024