How to Regain Time in Hospitality

By Daniel Zolinski | August 27, 2024

What would you do if you had 20 extra hours in your week? I want you to really think about it. Would you take that family trip you’ve been thinking about? Would you grab a cup of coffee, sit outside, and read that book you simply didn’t have time to start? Would you invest more of your time into your health? I used to dream of having more time on my hands to do more of the things I love, but I was caught up in the hustle mentality of growing my own business. Honestly, I still am, but I have opened a few more hours for myself during the week. This article will breakdown the steps you can implement into your own hospitality company to free up more time for yourself while your company continues to thrive.

Conduct a Time Audit to Categorize Your Tasks

You manage what you measure. The first step to reclaiming your time is getting crystal clear on where it’s currently going. For the next week, create a spreadsheet and track how every hour of your time is spent. Break this into 4 sub-categories:

Hourly rate audit: How much are you being paid for each activity?
Energy audit: Assess how each activity impacts your energy.
Elimination audit: Begin eliminating the activities that have the lowest pay while expending the most amount of energy.
Automation audit: Observe what activities are essential for your business and if you can automate them so they work for you.
Delegation audit: Ask yourself, “What activities can I delegate and to whom?”

Set up Systems to Delegate Low-Value Tasks

Now that you know what you shouldn’t be spending time on, it’s time to delegate those tasks. Here’s how to do exactly that:

Record a Loom video of you doing the task.
Turn it into a Google Doc text-based instruction manual.

You can then use the 4-step delegation system to teach your team:

You do the task with them watching.
They do the task with you watching live.
They do the task and send a Loom showing how they did it.
They do the task autonomously.

Fiercely Protect Your Time for High-Leverage Work

With low-value tasks off your plate, it’s time to maximize your “genius-zone” hours. Here are 5 good rules to follow:

“Meetings-free mornings.” This is a suggestion. I prefer to have meetings in the mornings, but others like to have them in the afternoons. Set up meetings in time blocks that work best for you, so you have more time for deep thinking work.
Cut distractions, turn off notifications, and work in distraction-free environments to accelerate your work.
Tackle your #1 most important task first before anything else.
Use a scheduling tool like Calendly to eliminate too much back-and-forth.
Have a daily shutdown ritual. End every day defining your top 3 priorities for the next day and brain dump any nagging thoughts from the current day.

You may already have your own process that has freed up more time for yourself, but if not, I hope this article serves as a handy tool to look back on for more intentionality. Happy building!