How To Budget Your Time Like You (Should) Budget Your Money

When we first meet business owners, it's kind of like anything else. We try to make ourselves look better than we typically are doing. And so we tell some stories that may or may not be true. In that process of getting to know business owners, we realize that there's a lot underneath the surface that we want to be able to explore—to see, ultimately, for one purpose: to liberate them from chaos and make time for what matters most.

We're not impressed by storytelling much anymore because we've heard so many stories. By the time we peel back the curtain, we realize, "Oh, you're just like everybody else." And now we can get to work. Once we realize that, we can really get to work and take the sheen off.

I want to explore something that we hear a lot from business owners when they first tell us everything’s rosy, everything’s good. And then we realize, “I’m not the best communicator. I really kind of stink at it.” Not only that, but my time starts to go away because I feel like I’m having to recommunicate over and over again.

Hey, it’s Scott Beebe with Business On Purpose. I mentioned this in the last few episodes, but if you haven’t checked out The Dickie & Donnie Show, make sure to do that. It’s both on this podcast thread for Business On Purpose and on our My Business On Purpose YouTube channel. You can actually watch them—they’re super fun. Two of the coaches at Business On Purpose, who I have the privilege of working with, have a really great show. Dickie and Donnie—that’s not their real names, but you’ll get it the more you listen.

Let’s explore the concept of retention in the Big Five Feedback Loop Models. We want to guard our time like we guard our money. How do we do that? Let’s root this conversation in communication. It’s often a challenge in business owners' lives, and many owners find themselves in a constant state of reaction. They’re waking up to chaos, spending their days as little firefighters—putting out fires, throwing Hail Marys, and juggling multiple tasks simultaneously.

There’s a mindset shift that’s necessary to address that challenge. One of the key strategies is implementing what we call an ideal weekly schedule. We want to be great communicators, great budgeters, great job costers, and inventory takers—we want to do really well in the day-to-day tasks of business. But too many times we look up at 6 p.m. and say, “I got nothing done today.”

The ideal weekly schedule involves working your week in time blocks. Kind of like Tetris. Remember that game? You got little blocks and you try to fit them in. That’s what the ideal weekly schedule looks like. It recognizes that time—not money—is your most valuable asset. You can make more money. You can’t make more time. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called time irrevocable. So why not manage it as carefully as your money?

Think of your week as a budget of time slots that you allocate to specific tasks. Need time for estimating, sales, outreach, marketing? Then schedule it. Expecting client calls? Set aside time for those, too. The key is to predetermine these time buckets instead of letting others dictate your schedule. If you don’t, someone else will—me, anybody else.

You might think you need to be available whenever a client calls. That’s a red flag. Firefighters and police officers are trained to respond in emergencies. That’s not your role. The moment someone else is in charge of your time, you’ve lost control. I’ve heard it said that email is someone else’s agenda for your day. Do you know the average person spends over three hours a day on email? The same goes for text messages and phone calls.

When you feel like you need to be constantly available, ask yourself: is it truly necessary—or is it your ego needing validation?

Here’s what’s likely happening: you’re suffering from a disease we’ve diagnosed called LLVD—Latest Loudest Voice Disease. Sounds gross, right? But it’s real. I’ll go deeper into that in a future podcast, but for now, bookmark that term. If you heard it and thought, “Yep, that’s me,” then it’s time to step back and reassess.

Remember this: your time is your time, and your calendar should reflect that. Some of you might be thinking, “No, it’s not.” But yes, it is. We can go back and forth, but it’s still your time. You can do something else with it. There may be consequences, but it’s still yours. Until you believe that, you’re not in a position to effectively schedule and manage your day.

In a future podcast, I’ll share a quote by Annie Dillard: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

You may argue that you need to be available for vendors, customers, or pressing matters. That’s fair. But you can still meet those needs within a structured schedule. The goal is to take control of your time and use it intentionally, not reactively.

Implementing this blocked schedule approach helps you create a more organized, efficient, and less stressful work environment. It allows you to focus on what matters, avoid interruptions, and ultimately improve productivity and work-life balance.

I recently read a book by Dan Martell called Buy Back Your Time—great book. He talks about hiring an assistant to help free you up. After ten years in business, I realized I needed that. We’ve had people help before, but now we’ve brought on what we call an implementation assistant.

For the first three months, their role is focused solely on me—getting things off my plate so I can do three primary things: coach my small group of clients, develop new tools (like a powerful operating system tool we’re building), and do storytelling—podcasts, speaking engagements, and events.

Anything outside those three priorities pulls from my time, and I can’t get that time back. That’s why we brought in support. We now have three scheduled email check-ins daily: morning, midday, and afternoon. Notice: I’m not in my email all day. In fact, I’ve only checked it two or three times in the last four weeks. And today? It’s Monday, and I haven’t even looked. But I know it’ll be cleared by noon. Why? Because I value my time.

We’re investing in someone else to help us buy back time—because time is the one thing you can’t get back.

If you’ve got questions about any of this, go to businessonpurpose.com/ask. If you're a business owner with three or more employees doing $1M+ in revenue, we’d love to chat for 15–20 minutes. No strings. If you want to know how to work with us, we’ll tell you—but only if you ask.

Our goal is simple: to help you be liberated from chaos so you can make time for what matters most.

 

📅 Want help building your Ideal Weekly Schedule? Visit businessonpurpose.com/ask to talk to a coach—no pressure, just practical guidance.

To check the health of your business, visit mybusinessonpurpose.com/healthy today!

SIGN UP for our Newsletter HERE➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/newsletter

For blogs and updates, visit our site HERE ➡️ https://www.mybusinessonpurpose.com/blog/

LISTEN to the Business On Purpose Podcast HERE ➡️ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-business-on-purpose/id969222210

SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel HERE ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbPR8lTHY0ay4c0iqncOztg?sub_confirmation=1