Life Leverage

“Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I could move the world.” This ancient wisdom from Archimedes reminds us that leveraging our resources, time, and energy is the key to living an extraordinary life.

1. Life Management is Time Management

If you feel overwhelmed by your commitments, it’s not time you need more of—it’s better leveraging. Life management teaches you to focus on what truly matters by using systems and processes to make the most of your day. While time itself can’t be controlled, what you do with it is fully up to you.

Instead of working harder, work smarter by streamlining and outsourcing tasks that keep you from your goals. The concept of leverage allows you to accomplish much more and directs your time to activities aligned with your long-term vision. This approach helps you prioritize meaningful goals over trivial tasks.

Time is the most valuable resource. People at the end of their lives regret not spending enough of it on relationships and passions. Leveraging life correctly helps reallocate your hours, so you can avoid those regrets and focus on what truly adds value.

Examples

• Outsourcing household chores like cleaning so you can focus on family time.
• Automating bill payments to eliminate repetitive tasks.
• Designing a daily schedule where high-priority tasks come first.

2. Define Your Vision Before You Leverage

Without a clear vision, time gained through leverage is wasted. A vision gives direction to how your reclaimed time and efforts will be spent, shaping a life driven by your values and purpose.

Start by identifying key result areas (KRAs), income-generating tasks (IGTs), and measurable goals like key performance indicators (KPIs). This strategy ensures that your life and work align with your deeper values, such as family, freedom, or creativity.

Knowing your purpose keeps distractions at bay. When you batch tasks or delegate, it’s all geared toward fulfilling a meaningful goal. Establish this foundation before diving into tools and tactics, as a life that lacks direction risks becoming unbalanced and unfulfilling.

Examples

• Setting KPIs like a revenue goal for a side hustle to replace a full-time income you dislike.
• Uncovering your values by determining how you currently spend your free time.
• Creating a vision board that aligns career aspirations with personal passions.

3. Learn to Batch and Optimize Time

"Batching" involves grouping similar tasks and completing them in focus blocks of time. Applying productive rituals can multiply your efficiency, while time audits help you identify waste and convert idle minutes into invested ones.

By leveraging NeTime (No Extra Time), you layer activities to maximize the return on every hour. For instance, listening to audiobooks during workouts or commutes allows you to grow while engaging in routine tasks.

Prioritization through tools like the 80/20 principle ensures that 80% of your results focus on the 20% of your activities that matter. Layering purpose into your time allocation establishes intentionality in every block you schedule.

Examples

• Bundling errands to reduce travel time.
• Listening to a professional development podcast while commuting.
• Running personal phone calls during a walk to combine physical activity and connection.

4. Outsource Low-Value Tasks

One of the fastest routes to leverage is outsourcing. Don’t dilute your time with tasks that could easily be handled by someone else or an automated system. This frees you to focus on higher-value activities that move you closer to your goals.

Whether it’s hiring virtual assistants or using tax professionals, rely on others’ strengths to fill in the gaps. Not only does this approach reduce stress, but it also scales your time by ensuring each task is handled by the person or system best equipped for the job.

By streamlining obligations and trusting capable people, you can achieve extraordinary results with less personal burnout, enabling you to thrive rather than just survive.

Examples

• Hiring a freelance editor to save time when writing.
• Using a virtual assistant to manage your inbox.
• Passing on repetitive administrative duties to an automated software.

5. Declutter and Clear Out

Clutter, both physical and mental, consumes energy. Regular "seasonal clear-outs" are a proven way to focus on what truly matters. Purging unnecessary commitments and materials results in a renewed space for productivity.

Neuroscience indicates that a clear environment boosts cognitive performance. Take time semi-annually to consolidate loose ends like old paperwork, digital files, or processed emails. Let this habit create mental bandwidth for creativity and focus.

Minimizing distractions and clearing space optimizes your time for deeper, unencumbered work. Clear-outs also serve as reality checks, aligning everyday tasks with your larger purpose.

Examples

• Cancelling subscriptions for services you no longer use.
• Consolidating poorly organized email folders with a smart sorting system.
• Setting biannual reminders to reassess your workload and simplify.

6. Prioritize Through the "4 Ds"

To maximize your efforts, follow the “4 Ds” framework: Do, Delegate, Defer, or Delete. Not all tasks deserve equal attention. Efficient prioritization requires filtering out unimportant ones or relegating them to others.

Start every day by categorizing tasks into these four buckets. Use systems to ensure manual effort isn't wasted. For every ask, decide: Is it important? Is it urgent? Could it wait, or does it not need to happen at all?

This practice streamlines your efforts, focusing only on creating results that matter. It's an elegant process for avoiding decision fatigue.

Examples

• Deleting unproductive social media notifications.
• Delegating travel arrangements to a travel agent.
• Deferring non-urgent bills until they fit a financial planning session.

7. Build Systems for Automation

Automation reduces repetitive workflow demands. From scheduling tools to automated customer response emails, setting such systems lets you maintain productivity when you're away.

Effective workflows include syncing calendars across devices and automating tasks like invoice sending or progress tracking. By developing robust systems, you create a safety net for uninterrupted productivity even during downtime or travel.

Automation doesn’t eliminate your role—it assures only your creativity and decision-making power are tapped as needed.

Examples

• Setting automated calendar reminders for client meetings.
• Using platforms like Zapier to connect and trigger actions between apps.
• Implementing invoice templates for faster financial follow-ups.

8. Create Income Diversification

Relying on one source of income increases risk. True freedom requires wealth-building, where money works for you through multiple income streams like investing or digital products.

By generating recurring sources of income, from real estate to licensing agreements, you can scale beyond traditional work hours. This further ensures financial security in a world where the nature of work continually evolves.

Diversify your assets strategically, ranging from cash flow-rich subscriptions to appreciating investments like stocks or art.

Examples

• Building passive revenue from e-learning courses.
• Profiting from dividend-paying stocks.
• Investing in physical assets like real estate or collectibles.

9. Merge Profession and Passion

Sustainable success emerges when work aligns with passion. Combining vocation and vacation—not separating them—creates a flow where work energizes rather than drains your life.

By finding roles or businesses that engage your natural talents, you align your career with your purpose. This doesn’t eliminate work but transforms it into a meaningful pursuit that fuels personal growth.

Purpose-driven work leads to a more mobile lifestyle, allowing location or fixed hours to become arbitrary constructs rather than demands.

Examples

• Creating a business teaching skills you’re passionate about.
• Transitioning from an office job to remote work in your chosen field.
• Turning hobbies like travel writing into a revenue-generating profession.

Takeaways

1. Regularly audit where your time goes and eliminate or outsource low-value activities.
2. Create systems that allow automation of recurring work to free bandwidth for innovation.
3. Develop financial freedom by building multiple income streams and investing strategically.