Worksheet 03
The Owner's Time Audit
Owners guess where their time goes and the guess is always wrong. Track one honest week. Every working hour goes in one of four buckets. At the end of the week the business will look different, because you will finally see what it runs on.
The four buckets
1. Only you
Work that genuinely needs the owner: strategy, key relationships, pricing calls, hiring decisions.
2. Someone else, with training
You do it best today, but only because nobody else has been taught.
3. Someone else, today
Admin, chasing, scheduling, errands. Anyone could do this now.
4. Nobody
Work that should not exist: meetings without decisions, reports nobody reads, refreshing email.
The week
At the end of each day, write the hours per bucket. Round to halves. Honesty beats neatness.
| Day | Only you | Trainable | Delegable now | Nobody |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | ______ | ______ | ______ | ______ |
| Tuesday | ______ | ______ | ______ | ______ |
| Wednesday | ______ | ______ | ______ | ______ |
| Thursday | ______ | ______ | ______ | ______ |
| Friday | ______ | ______ | ______ | ______ |
| Weekend (be honest) | ______ | ______ | ______ | ______ |
The reckoning
Add up each column. Then answer in one line each:
What percentage of your week was "only you" work?
What is the first thing you will hand over, and to whom?
What will you kill entirely?
One delegation decision per audit. Do the audit again in a quarter. The "only you" number should rise every time; that is the whole game.
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