Top 3 Ways to Get Back Your Time

Life by Design

In this episode, hosts Jessilyn and Brian Persson explore the critical importance of reclaiming time to achieve both peace of mind and wealth. They discuss strategies like setting clear boundaries, learning to say no to unnecessary commitments, and delegating tasks to free up time for high-value activities.

Drawing from personal experiences—such as managing business tasks and scheduling tenant viewings—they emphasize the power of taking control of your time and prioritizing what truly matters. They also share practical tips on using tools like Asana for task management and the 80/20 rule to ensure focus on the most impactful tasks.

Jessilyn and Brian further highlight the significance of maintaining a balanced schedule, taking breaks to avoid burnout, and utilizing efficient meeting practices with clear agendas and time limits. Their advice encourages listeners to be intentional with their time, leverage external help when needed, and implement systems to streamline operations. Listeners will hear actionable steps for creating a healthier work-life balance and greater personal and financial success.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Asana
• Parkinson’s Law

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Contact Jessilyn and Brian Persson | Discover Life By Design:

• Website: DiscoverLifeByDesign.ca
• Instagram: DiscoverLifeByDesign
• Facebook: Discover Life By Design
• Linkedin: Discover Life By Design

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Transcript:

Jessilyn Persson: [00:00:09] Welcome to the Life by Design Podcast with your hosts Jessilyn and Brian Persson. We support couples in achieving their wealth goals by sharing our journey of overcoming barriers to build our financial empire.

Brian Persson: [00:00:21] Did you want to know more about what's stopping you from building your wealth? Make sure to go to discoverlifebydesign.ca/wealth and download our guide, 'The 3 Mistakes that Keep High Achieving Couples from Building their Wealth, Freedom & Living a Life they Love'.

Jessilyn Persson: [00:00:38] Today, our topic is 'The Top 3 Ways to Get Back Your Time'. Everyone complains they never have enough time, they're too busy. So Brian, why is it so important to us to get back our time?

Brian Persson: [00:00:53] I would say peace of mind, because if we're consistently overwhelmed with everything and we think that we never have enough time, our minds are not in a good state. So for us, it's important to have that free time for our family, for ourselves, for the people around us and not be consistently feeling like we're underwater.

Jessilyn Persson: [00:01:14] So it's more proactive than reactive. And how does that play into wealth?

Brian Persson: [00:01:20] It's a very important measure of wealth. The amount of free time specifically that you have, because everyone's got the same 24 hours in the day, but how much of that 24 hours is free time, and how much of it is time that you can do what you want with? If you can carve out more of that day to do whatever you want, then that is a sign of wealth.

Jessilyn Persson: [00:01:43] Absolutely. So what is the first takeaway? It is setting boundaries, learning to say no, which was a big one for me, but to unnecessary commitments or distractions. You want to protect your time by setting clear boundaries for work, family, personal life, you name it.

Brian Persson: [00:02:04] Saying no, huge in this society. I don't think most people do it, primarily. We watch people all around us that are constantly saying yes to family and to friends and to their kids, and their life is really restricted.

Jessilyn Persson: [00:02:23] It was a hard lesson for me to learn to say no, and while I've vastly improved, I still struggle with it. There will be times our little guy will come to us and say, hey mummy, you want to go play this game or something, and I get this little knack of guilt in my rib cage going, I so do want to play with you, but mommy has work. So it's picking that. Then there's other times where, a very recent example, I'm working with an external contractor that I paid to help me with some of my speaking stuff, and they're just throwing things at me. You got to write this article, this deadline's tomorrow, you got to do this presentation. I'm also working a full time contract, and we got real estate, and we got our kids. Instead of saying no, I went into 'overwhelm' and tried to conquer it all, and it just consumed me. Then I watched it play out, didn't even know what to do with it as I watched it play out and it impacted you and the boys and my health, I lost my appetite. It's like, wow Jess, take time now, figure this out, because this is not good for anyone and there's no reason for it. I can say no and give timelines on when I can produce certain things and respond to certain things and figure it out.

Brian Persson: [00:03:42] There's a lot of layers to 'no'. For example, you could have said no from the beginning of that, but the contract with this lady was really something you needed and really something you wanted. You said yes out of it, not quite knowing into the future that all these particular timelines were going to collide, so you're a little bit a victim of circumstance. At the same time, inside of that, you can 'micro-no' your situation where you can say no in particular moments even though you said yes to the holistic side of things. There's different layers of it. The kids are fantastic example, you can say no to kids and not have them at all and then save all your time.

Jessilyn Persson: [00:04:35] I don't know if I call that a fantastic example because they're amazing.

Brian Persson: [00:04:38] Fantastic example in terms of an extreme example, that's very tangible to bite off.

Jessilyn Persson: [00:04:44] Can you give the audience an example when you say you could do 'micro-no's’.

Brian Persson: [00:04:48] That's what I was getting at with the kids. How many times a day do kids ask you for things?

Jessilyn Persson: [00:04:56] All the time. And how many times do we say no?

Brian Persson: [00:04:59] Exactly. You're saying no all the time. There's lessons in that. Why are you saying no all the time? The kids are basically seeing cracks that you aren't seeing, and they are trying to manipulate those cracks by asking you all these questions and you don't know how to react to it, so you just say no. But really you, somewhere else, have said yes for them to get to the point of asking you that question.

Jessilyn Persson: [00:05:30] Or they just have no filters and they're going to ask anyways.

Brian Persson: [00:05:33] So it's tricky, no can be tricky. You can get affected by previous 'yes's you said yes to, previous things you agreed to that are now resulting in you really wanting to say no.

Jessilyn Persson: [00:05:48] It's true.

Brian Persson: [00:05:49] And that's why you have to be so diligent...