Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business

by Jenny Blake Narrated by Jenny Blake

Overview

Time is not money. Time is life force.

Are you consistently doing the work that you and only you can do? Or are you burdened by busywork, the bottleneck blocking your company's profit and potential? 

Your time is far more precious than money. It is your presence, your memories, your quality of life. As a business owner, you are already paying a risk and pressure tax. For many, growth fueled by added stress is not worth the trade-off. You have an urge to simplify and streamline.

A more joyful business is within reach. Imagine:

• Traveling, going off the grid, or handling family emergencies without panicking that everything will fall apart while you are gone.
• Working 10- to 20-hour weeks, delegating the rest to a part-time remote team.
• Answering questions with relief, knowing you don't have to "own" the next steps.
• Empowering your Delightfully Tiny Team¿ to answer their own questions before they even have to ask you.
• Harnessing your creative energy for the strategic projects that excite you most.

Jenny Blake, author of the award-winning book Pivot and co-creator of Google's acclaimed Career Guru coaching program, is back with her signature blend of heart-based operating principles and practical tools. This book will teach you how to move from friction to flow through smarter systems and the three-stage Free Time Framework.¿

Free Time is a playbook to free your mind, time, and team for your best work. This book will teach you and your team to operate efficiently and intuitively while earning abundantly, so you can make your greatest contribution as a business owner.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A practical, commonsense guide for business leaders and beyond.”

—Booklist

"An invigorating and informative time-management manual."

—Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

2021-12-03
A comprehensive efficiency guide for solo entrepreneurs and small-business owners.

Business owner/podcaster Blake, author of the career-development book Pivot (2016), makes a convincing case for working smarter, not harder, in a book centered around a compelling question: “How can we earn twice as much in half the time, with ease and joy, while serving the highest good?” When she set out to build her own business after working at Google, Blake faced the typical challenges of self-employment, but instead of succumbing to income deficiencies and overwork, she restructured her business based on her emerging belief that “business stress is a systems problem.” That belief is effectively the platform for this book, because Blake intelligently demonstrates how her own system—the “Free Time Framework”—can facilitate business success and also free up time. Its three stages (“Align, Design, Assign”) provide a natural structure for the book itself, whose three parts describe the stages in detail. Clearly, Blake understands the power of three, as each section is further subdivided into three overarching chapter concepts; for example, “Align” asserts that a business project must line up with one’s “Values,” be compatible with how one focuses one’s “Energy,” and draw on one’s “Strengths.” At times, the book seems a bit too tightly organized, but Blake makes it work by weaving together short, engaging chapters that are chock full of relevant examples and useful sidebars. Particularly helpful are the initial overviews of each subsection and the concluding chapter recaps. The book’s content is substantive, and each part delves deeply into its subject matter. Blake’s suggestions always reinforce agility and efficiency. In Part 1 (“Align”), the author introduces one of her core principles: “Each time you repeat a task, take one step toward automating it,” which she discusses further in Part 2. Other worthwhile ideas in Part 1 include setting “purposeful intentions,” employing strategies for overcoming business bottlenecks, and learning how to “embrace imperfection.” Part 2 (“Design”) addresses how to establish and measure “ideal outcomes” and the potential impact of a project and how to design an efficient process. “Serendipity as Business Strategy” is an especially intriguing chapter, and a later sidebar, “Stop Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds,” shares the story of Blake’s and another entrepreneur’s social media hiatuses and the positive effects they had on their businesses. Other concepts in this part, such as Blake’s “deep work” windows, will surely resonate with overburdened business owners. The primary focus of Part 3 (“Assign”) is delegation—arguably one of an entrepreneur’s biggest challenges. Here, Blake elegantly describes how to extricate oneself from being the “Chief Everything Officer” and how to build a “Delightfully Tiny Team.” She also covers several other useful techniques and tactics for maximizing time efficiency, such as building a task management system. All three parts of the book are well written, applicable, and actionable. Stylistically, Blake is a master of alliteration and rhyming; she’s also adept at employing numbered and bulleted lists. Overall, she delivers an entertaining, instructive reading experience.

An invigorating and informative time-management manual.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175509237
Publisher:	Ideapress Publishing
Publication date:	03/22/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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