Feeling overwhelmed by endless tasks? In this episode, we review Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell—a must-read for online business owners, bloggers, and podcasters who need to reclaim their day.

Learn how to audit your time, transfer tasks that drain your energy, and fill your schedule with what truly matters for both your business and personal freedom.

Tune in to discover how effective time management can transform your workflow and empower you to focus on what really counts.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

✅ 3 Steps: Audit, Transfer, Fill method for effective time management.

✅ Audit Your Day: Identify where your time is being wasted.

✅ The #1 Task: To offload to someone else … to transfer

✅ Mindset Shift: Embrace the new approach to overcome overwhelm and gain freedom.

Resources Available:

Business Marketing Roadmap

Buy Back Your Time

Hey, everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family Ebiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses so you can find the freedom to do the things that are important to you. That is really what our topic is all about today, and I am so excited to share this with you before I dive into our discussion on buying back our time and getting more time back for us to do the right activities. Please subscribe to this channel—it would mean the world to me. If there's a place to leave a review, go ahead and leave us a 5-star review; that would be awesome.

Today, we're going to begin a podcast series over the next two or three weeks, and it will be all based on the book Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell. My nephew told me about this at Thanksgiving, so I came home and ordered it. It had been sitting there while I was reading other books, and last weekend, when I had no particular book to read, I finally started it on Sunday morning. I was a little unsure if it would really be helpful, even though I consider myself pretty organized and focused—I do take breaks and follow time management principles that I’ve even taught others. But when I read this book, something in my mindset shifted. It’s stuff I had heard before, but I reached a point where I thought, "Yes, this is the time, Kerry, so let me share a little bit about it." I’ll give you a couple of reasons why some people resist what Dan is encouraging, and then I’ll assign you a task if you truly want to buy back your time.

I don't know about you, but sometimes we are drowning in our business. We get so caught up in being in the business instead of working on the business. In fact, I was on a mastermind call just a few days ago, and one of our members was exactly in that situation. There are times when we dive deep and know we need to work hard, but if it’s month after month, that's too much—at least in our homeschool world. In a week and a half, I have my annual event, so I know that week is going to be busy. The weekend before, even though, don't ask me why, I'll be out of town for our granddaughter's dedication. That's the way life is. This next week, before I leave, I’ll be working long hours, but afterwards, I plan to take a break, relax, and then get back into my regular routine.

Are you drowning in your work? No matter how organized or focused you are, it can all just be too much—the endless to-do list never seems to end, and you can never quite clear it all. Maybe you don't have (or perhaps you do have) time to do what matters most. That's what Family Ebiz is all about: helping you create freedom in your life for whatever is important to you. Do you spend time doing what's important—time with your family, working out, traveling, or enjoying your hobbies? If not, you need to consider buying back your time.

When we're overwhelmed, our reactions can include procrastination—we just keep putting things off, maybe because we don’t believe the effort will really work. Sometimes we think, "If I just put it off, at least I have an excuse and can lighten my load," but that never really solves the problem. Some of you might even reach a point where you think, "Maybe I should just sell my business and step away." Others might sabotage their own projects and then lament that nothing worked out, falling into a little pity party. Dan goes into these areas in much more detail in his book, which I highly recommend. I’ve included an affiliate link in your show notes, and I’d really appreciate it if you used that.

Now, let’s talk about fixing this problem so that in your business you're spending time on the right activities and have time for the things that matter. There are three steps: audit, transfer, and fill. By "audit," I mean you’re going to examine how you spend your time. This is my assignment for you. I started this on Monday—I usually read business books without putting them into practice, but I finished this one in two days because it meant so much to me. I began a time audit by writing down every time I switched to a major task from Monday to Wednesday. I plan to review my notes after a week or two to see what patterns emerge; Dan has some tips that we’ll discuss next week.

One thing I noticed during my audit—confession time—is that I work for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. However, during this season of life, with my son's fiancé living with me (he’s here, in and out of town), my intended 5-minute break sometimes turns into 15 minutes. For example, I spent 15 minutes from 9:05 to 9:20 on Monday just visiting while getting my coffee. This is what we’re going to audit: identify where you’re spending your time.

Then we move on to transferring. We need to find the activities that you don’t need to do yourself and hand them off to someone else. The number one thing I want to talk about is your email. If you’re checking your email all day, that’s a problem. I’ve mentioned before that email should be checked once or twice a day. Sometimes I don’t even check it because I have someone like Ross who manages it—organizing it into folders so I only see what’s necessary. Once you audit your tasks, find one thing you can transfer, even if it costs a little money. You can use services like Upwork to hire someone at a reasonable rate. Even if you only have $25 a week to spend—around $20 a month—you could pay someone a small fee to handle your inbox, reply to messages, and take care of customer service. This alone will free up so much time.

I’m still brainstorming ways to transfer more tasks, such as scheduling social media posts. You don’t need to waste your time on that—hand it off to a teenager, an intern, or someone else who can do it efficiently and enjoyably. Once you transfer tasks, you create a gap in your schedule that you can fill with the things that matter most. For me, that’s marketing: writing emails, checking Facebook ads, creating campaigns, making financial decisions, managing the marketing calendar, promotions, and networking. These are the tasks that light me up, and I hope you can transfer the painful ones you’re drowning in and fill your schedule with things that inspire you, including time with your family.

So, I encourage you over the next two weeks to keep a time audit. Every 15–30 minutes, note what you’re doing—even if some tasks last an hour. Transfer your notes into a spreadsheet so you can sort them by category and see where you’re spending most of your time. Ask yourself, "Where are you spending time that doesn’t let you do what you're an expert at? Where are you wasting time? Where are you stuck?" Consider handing these tasks off to someone who might enjoy them more, like social media management. The end goal isn’t just to make a list, but to transfer the tasks that are overwhelming you and fill your calendar with what’s truly important—including family time. You might be surprised at how much time you’re spending away from your business or not spending enough time with your loved ones.

Next week, we’ll talk about how to find someone to help you, especially if you’re thinking, "I can’t afford it," or "They’re not going to do a good enough job." Hang with me next week as we tackle these two objections: I can’t afford it and they’re not going to do it as well because it’s not me. Dan covers these objections, and I’m going to share his insights with you. I highly encourage you to grab a copy of this book—it will inspire you and get your mindset back on track for really growing your business. Thanks so much for spending time with me. I'm Kerry Beck with Family Ebiz, and we'll talk to you next time.