Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell

I keep telling myself to stop reading “self-help” books and pick up more interesting or work-related ones. Yet, I found myself with Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell, a book about time management for entrepreneurs.

{{more}}

Before starting the book, I looked up Dan Martell and found his channel. His videos kept appearing in my feed, which I routinely ignored. I viewed him as another successful entrepreneur know-it-all trying to teach me everything he knows.

The book addressed areas I am struggling with in my career, including delegation and time management, even though I’m not an entrepreneur.

I started reading, regardless of my initial thoughts of the author, and was pleasantly surprised that I got a lot out of the book. Overall, it was engaging, easy to read, and relevant to my circumstances.

The book focuses on Dan’s Buyback Principle:

Don’t hire to grow your business. Hire to buy back your time.

Here are my distilled notes:

• DRIP Matrix: Spend most time in the Production quadrant, then Investments. Quickly clear delegation; transition replacement.
• D elegation: low-value work that someone else can do.
• R eplacement: High-value work others can manage after transfer.
• I nvestment: things that add capacity over time, like training, relationships, health, and investing in systems.
• P roduction: Work of the highest value that only you can do.
• Your time is worth your pay divided by 2,000 hours. Your buyback rate is your pay divided by 8,000 hours. If you could pay someone less than your buyback rate to do a task, you should. For instance, Tina earns $200,000. Her time is worth $100/hour, and her buyback rate is $25/hour. If someone can do a task well for less than $25/hour, outsource it.
• Audit your time and energy. Batch tasks. Use your calendar. Prioritize significant tasks first, then smaller ones will follow.
• Delegate by recording how to do every task, creating step-by-step playbooks and checklists. Adjust your expectations. You do the first 10% to set the context, someone else does the 80%, and then you do the last 10%, adding personal touches and polish. Give your team the freedom to resolve issues without your approval.
• Transactional leadership is when you tell someone what to do, check in on them, and provide next steps. Transformational leadership gives them the outcome, measurements, and coaching.

80% done by someone else is 100% freaking awesome.

My Action Items:

• Create a DRIP matrix to delegate and replace my current tasks and responsibilities.
• Update my 2026 calendar with big rocks.
• Use a tool like ManicTime to see what I’m spending time on.
• Create a system to document my tasks for delegation.
• Start using Microsoft Copilot more to triage my inbox, prepare for meetings, take meeting notes, and create follow-up tasks.

Who should read this book?

If you’re a solo entrepreneur, lead projects, manage a team, or feel overwhelmed with work that others could help with.