8 Ways to Get Time Back as an Agency Founder

Your calendar is chaotic. 

I’m guessing, based on the calendars I’ve seen from multiple agency founders. But there’s a good chance yours is like theirs. 

Here’s something interesting you probably already know: You can tell what’s important to someone by what’s scheduled on their calendar. 

Only for most of the calendars I look at, it’s just random events stacked on top of each other every day. There’s no focus. And that is likely destroying your business (it’s at least keeping you stagnant). 

I wanted to take some time, not just to help you organize your calendar, but to give you some ways you can get more time back in your schedule. Because the issue for most agency founders isn’t arranging their calendar, it’s getting everything done. 

But, if we can get you a plan to get everything accomplished, without you needing to be the person to do it all, arranging your calendar becomes easy. And, it might actually survive a week without needing to be rearranged. 

So, here are 8 things you can start to implement to regain time in your schedule. 

1. Delegate and Outsource Tasks

Delegation is by far the most useful skill for marketing agency founders. It’s the most important for all leaders really, but I’m talking to you. 

The mark of a leader isn’t how much you can get done on your own. It’s how much you can get done through other people. Leaders have the leverage to make things happen by working with a team. 

I won’t get into the details because I created a free delegation guide based on lessons I learned in the Army. You can grab it on Gumroad. 

Along with delegating, though, is your ability to outsource.

You and your team should be exceptionally good at one thing. For the stuff you’re not experts in, find someone else who can help. Who, not how. 

You’ll still have to manage the project, but when someone else can do the work, you’re free to work on the stuff only you can do. 

2. Automate Processes

I’m a huge fan of automation, but only when you’ve achieved great results to replicate. 

So many agencies jump right to creating processes, but they only end up replicating mediocrity. Then they complain that they aren’t able to get great results. 

Instead, automate the stuff that doesn’t require creative thought to free up more time for the work that matters. 

There’s an order you should roll out AI in your agency. I call it the Order of AI Operations. You can watch a presentation I did with ZenPilot about the topic. 

3. Hire for Key Leadership Roles

You can’t do it all yourself. While delegation helps, most people think of delegation as just handing off tasks. But what if you were able to assign authority and accountability to individuals? 

Finding the right leaders for positions like Delivery, Acquisition, Operations, and Accounting can free you up to work on bigger challenges within the company. It can also move the team faster because everyone has a more focused role. 

Keep in mind, you can’t delegate responsibility. You’ll always be responsible for what the team does or fails to do. So you still need to keep tabs on everything. 

4. Focus on High-Impact Clients and Offers

Don’t waste your time on clients you shouldn’t be working with. 

That statement probably sounds obvious, but many agencies take on projects purely because they want the revenue. The problem is that you’re going to spend way more time with these client than the ones who you actually want to work with. 

If you’re going to create an offer for smaller clients, make it something that you can productize. Build it once, sell it forever. That’ll give you leverage without taking up more time. 

5. Block Time for Deep Work

Blocking your calendar is critical. Paul Graham has a great concept of Maker Time vs. Manager Time. 

Makers need time to go deep and not be interrupted. A meeting in the middle of the day can completely rob them of productivity. 

Managers are more productive when they work through people, so they need to sync with others. This creates a challenge because what they need is at odds with the Makers. 

Something we did at our agency was “Deep Work Day.” Every Thursday had no meetings. No client meetings. No internal meetings. It was a day to do whatever you needed with no interruptions. 

We also tried to put all client meetings on Tuesday. This way, Makers didn’t needed to break up every single day with client syncs. 

As the founder, this’ll make better use of your time and help the team stay on track. 

6. Say No to Non-Essential Projects

If a project isn’t a “Hell Yeah!” it’s not something to work on right now. 

This is why having a clear strategy is important. Many agency founders I talk to chase the new ideas. They’re extremely comfortable with change and want to move fast. Only, that causes them to stop making progress in other areas. 

When you say, “No,” to something, you preserve your focus. When you say, “Yes,” to something, you say, “No,” to everything else. 

Be very specific in what you agree to and only choose the tasks that move you close to the goal. 

7. Use a Client Management Tool

First, actually use a CRM. It doesn’t matter what platform you choose, but people able to track all your client data is going to save you massive heartache in the future. 

Separate from that, you should have a project management tool. You need somewhere to keep tabs on all your projects and progress quickly and effectively. This makes it easies to make decisions and know where to apply focus. 

The faster you can make decisions, the more time you can free up in your schedule. 

8. Plan Your Week in Advance

To maximize your time, I recommend a Weekly Review/Preview. 

Every Friday (or the last day of your work week), block out 30 minutes to review everything that happened this week. What follow-ups do you need? Are there action items from meetings to knock out? Do you need to schedule any future events? 

Then, look at your next week. What meetings do you need to prep for? Are there projects you need to block time for? 

This simple activity will help you arrange your week in a way where it doesn’t fall to pieces 30 minutes into Monday morning. 

Win Back Your Time

An exercise I like to do with my clients is a time study. If we know where our time is going, it’s easier to optimize. We need the data to make decisions. 

Doing this, we’ve identified so many ways to get more freedom back in their schedules, so they can allocate time wherever they need to. Whether it’s in other areas of the business, at the gym, on a vacation, or anywhere else. 

If you want a coaching session to see where you can regain control of your schedule, grab some time on my calendar.