Hey - it’s Tom.

Welcome to this week’s Tactical Tuesday edition of Ctrl+Shift, where we give you quick, no-bullshit tactics to overcome real business challenges.

Est. time to implement: 15 minutes.

The Founder 'Time & Energy' Audit

Are you constantly busy but not working on the right things? Are you unsure whether your next hire should be an assistant, an ops manager, or a salesperson?

This quick audit helps you categorise last week's activities to reveal where you're spending the most time, making your hiring decision obvious.

All too often businesses hire based on perceived frustrations and “in the moment” pain. This process will help you step back from all that and make an analytical hiring decision.

Note from Tom: Early in my career, my gut screamed at me to hire another salesperson. I felt overwhelmed with sales, so I did. The problem was, he was great at his job but our operations couldn't actually deliver on the new work he brought in. It was a painful and expensive lesson in solving the wrong problem. That's why I now advocate for this simple audit with every new hire. It replaces the 'loudest' pain with objective data, ensuring your next hire isn't just a band-aid, but a strategic move.

1. List Your Activities: For one week, list all significant tasks you handled. Tip: go through your calendar as a starting point and look at all the meetings you attended.

2. Categorise Each Task (The 2x2 Matrix): On a piece of paper, draw four quadrants. For each task, map it based on:

   1. Axis 1 (Vertical): Value to Business (Low Value vs. High Value)

   2. Axis 2 (Horizontal): Your Personal Skill/Energy (Drains Energy/Low Skill vs. Energises You/High Skill)

3. Analyse the Quadrants for Your Hire:

   1. Bottom-Left (Low Value / Drains Energy): This is your Assistant Hire. These are tasks to eliminate immediately (e.g., scheduling, booking travel, basic email filtering).

   2. Top-Left (High Value / Drains Energy): This is your Specialist Hire. This is critical work that you dislike or are not good at (e.g., detailed financial modeling, managing the sales team, project operations). You need an Ops Manager or a Sales Lead here.

   3. Top-Right (High Value / Energises You): This is Your Zone of Genius. This is the work you, as the leader, should be trying to do more of (e.g., strategic vision, key partnerships, company culture).

   4. Bottom-Right (Low Value / Energises You): This is a danger zone. These are hobbies disguised as work. Delegate or eliminate them.

That’s it for this edition, see you on Freedom Friday!

Cheers,

Tom