5 Time-Wasting Habits That Are Holding You Back

About this video

Dan Martell argues that even entrepreneurs who understand his buy-back-your-time principle sabotage themselves with five ’time assassins’ - habits that keep them doing more work instead of producing time for family, team and customers. First, the Staller drags feet on decisions, leaving opportunities sitting in a follow-up folder and losing momentum; distinguish reversible decisions, like a hire you can undo, from irreversible ones like an acquisition. Second, the Speed Demon is the opposite: moving too fast and hiring the cheapest or first available person, then losing far more time cleaning up an unqualified hire and upset customers; slow down and set guardrails. Third, the Supervisor micromanages, creating to-do lists and reviewing everything an assistant drafts instead of leading with outcomes and hiring people who can tell you how to do their job. Fourth, the Saver penny-pinches and walks over dollars to pick up nickels - illustrated by a friend running a $3 million coaching business who balked at $10,000 to solve a scaling problem his $20,000 customers would easily repay, preferring a $17 book; look for the who, not the how. Fifth, the Self-Medicator rewards hard work with drinking, overeating and hangovers that cancel meetings and damage relationships; Martell says he does not drink because of the time and pain it cost him. He closes by promoting his book Buy Back Your Time.

Key takeaways

• The Staller loses momentum by deferring decisions: act quickly, especially on reversible decisions, and do not treat undoable choices like irreversible ones.
• The Speed Demon hires too fast and too cheap, creating chaos and cleanup work that costs more time than a slower, guardrailed hiring process.
• The Supervisor micromanages instead of leading with outcomes: hire people who can create their own to-do list and tell you how the job should be done.
• The Saver penny-pinches on solutions and becomes a self-help junkie learning everything himself; find the who to solve the problem rather than the how.
• The Self-Medicator may be the biggest assassin for high performers: drinking, poor eating and hangovers waste days and cause collateral damage at work and home.

Episode details: published November 21, 2022 · 11:11 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dan Martell’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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