Busy Isn't a Business Strategy: Where Your Time Actually Goes

A full schedule can make you feel productive. But staying busy doesn't always mean your business is moving forward.

In this episode of The Breakout Moment, Christina May revisits conversations with business leaders about the real cost of their time and the challenge of balancing daily responsibilities with meaningful progress. Through insights from Tony Checchia, Nicole Elia, and Dondre Lawson, the episode explores how business owners can evaluate commitments, recognize when they need help, and use technology to simplify repetitive work.

These conversations highlight why learning to delegate and letting go of certain responsibilities can create more room for higher-value work and personal priorities. The takeaway is simple: making better use of your time isn't about fitting more into your schedule. It's about deciding what deserves your attention and what you can do differently.

COLD OPEN

Tony Checchia: My family says I don't make enough time with my family. And I'm not patient with my family because I use too much of that up, and that energy is consumed with the business.

Christina May: Quite frankly, my advice is that time is the only thing you can't get back.

Nicole Elia: I was like, what can I get rid of? What do I need to do versus what do I want to do? And then what am I comfortable giving to someone else?

CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS YOUR TIME REALLY WORTH?

You know those days when you haven't stopped moving, but somehow your to-do list is just as long as it was this morning? You're answering emails, jumping between meetings, checking in with your team, putting out fires, and before you know it, the day is gone.

Running a business means wearing a lot of hats, but at some point, you have to ask yourself whether you're spending your time on the right things. Because there's a difference between having a full schedule and actually moving your business forward.

We talk a lot about what things cost our businesses, but how often do we think about the cost of our own time? In an early conversation with Stacey Holsinger, I talked about how I evaluate commitments outside my regular workday. And Tony Checchia shares a much more personal side of what happens when running a business takes up more of your attention than you realize.

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Christina May: I sit on a board with somebody who was in my cohort. Like, you have to reset your expectation for ROI if you're joining a cohort or you're joining anything like this where you're giving up your time. And that would be the other thing I would say: calculate, as a business owner, your time. Give it a value.

Even if you're in the early stages and you're not paying yourself enough, give yourself an hourly rate, because that is time that you're taking away from your business, and it's time you're taking away from your family. And quite frankly, my advice is that time is the only thing you can't get back.

And I really quantify things that I sign up for, whether it's a board, whether it's a volunteer thing, whether it's a thing at my business, a client meeting, by my time.

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Tony Checchia: It's a life balance challenge, Christina, with family, with business. My family says I don't make enough time with my family. And I'm not patient with my family because I use too much of that up, and that energy is consumed with the business.

And of course, I stress because I'm like, well, I have to provide for the family, so I'm going to focus on this first. And they're not wrong. That's something I'm working on personally, working on trying to be more deliberate about scheduling time with my family. God forbid I shut my phone off at seven o'clock at night, and then I got this always available...

If I'm in the bathroom or I'm asleep, I'm not going to answer my phone, right?

CM: Okay, good. So I know that you're not texting me from the bathroom.

TC: I'm not doing that. I've been on the other end of that call when you hear the flush. Like, what in the world? But it just happened last week.

CM: Oh my God, seriously?

TC: So yeah. If I'm in the bathroom, I'm sleeping, I tell people I'm not answering my phone. But beyond that, I do pride myself in being accessible and available.

CM: And that's part of your business, too.

TC: I know, but it also leads to abuse, and an expectation is set. And then it's like, you know, if I go away, I can't. I'm never unplugging. I'm never away. And yeah, I know I need to do that. I know I need to unplug, recharge, and reset and be away.

CHAPTER 2: THE WORK THAT KEEPS PILING UP

Of course, knowing your time is valuable doesn't automatically make your to-do list any shorter, especially when you're used to being the person who handles everything.

Nicole Elia knows that feeling. After taking on more responsibility in her family's business, she reached a point where she had to rethink what was actually hers to do.

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Nicole Elia: Last year was a challenging year. It was a great year, but for me, mentally and physically, it was challenging. I mean, just for perspective, I call my car my office.

CM: That used to be me.

NE: I think I put about 29,000 miles on my vehicle. So there's a lot of driving, a lot of windshield time. So in December I was like, what can I get rid of? What do I need to do versus what do I want to do? And then what am I comfortable giving to someone else?

And our conversations were like, well, my mother and father were like, well, your father did all of that before. And I'm like, yeah, but you did his clerical while he was doing that. I don't have you. So it became extremely clear I needed an admin.

So I posted the first week in January. I had my admin by the end of January. I pulled the trigger really quickly, and fortunately she was available to start.

CHAPTER 3: THERE'S GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY

Making better use of your time doesn't always mean hiring another person. Sometimes it means changing the way the work gets done.

When I sat down with Dondre Lawson, we talked about how technology is changing what businesses can accomplish. And one thing that came up was the importance of understanding what you actually need a tool to do, rather than using it just because everyone else is.

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Dondre Lawson: It seems like every conference we go to, it's like, oh, I need to use AI for my business.

What is your use case? What do you want to use it for? Do you want to use AI for grant or proposal writing? Do you want to use AI so you can learn about marketing? Do you want to use AI to write yourself a book? What tools are out there for you to automate marketing?

Right? I think where firms come into this is how fast you can do it versus how fast someone else can do it. And I think that is what's important.

CM: Oh, absolutely. We're able to optimize the way that we spend our time. You know, when people mention to us the velocity of technology, it's like, no, actually, you benefit greatly from it because we're using these tools.

But our rule is, yes, we use it for ideation. Yes, we use it to summarize information, but nothing goes out without that final human touch on it. And what you are getting is a better allocation of your ROI, because we're able to spend that time now on being more strategic and less time writing out a post of some sort.

We're able to optimize that time and turn a lot faster than we've ever been able to before, whereas a lot of our time before was just so heavy on the other side of it. Because let's face it, we create a lot of data waste, and you have to weave through all of that when you don't have a tool to help you do that.

It eats up an incredible amount of time, and we're able to then really spend more time on the human side. Sales is a human interaction, especially in service businesses. Customer service is still, yes, you can optimize all of them, but we're humans. We still crave human interaction. Just like you and I talking right now. We crave this.

CHAPTER 4: MAKE ROOM FOR WHAT MATTERS

Here's the part that can be harder than making the change itself. Once you've found a way to free up some time, what do you do with it?

Nicole discovered that bringing in administrative help meant changing some of her own habits, too. And Tony reminds us that being available for everything can make it harder to be present for the people who matter most.

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NE: I had my admin by the end of January. She's been with us since then.

CM: That's awesome. So how has your life changed since then?

NE: I'm still onboarding her, 100%, on what I need.

CM: And yourself.

NE: And myself. Because it's... I'm a control freak.

CM: It's okay. You don't have to whisper it. It's safe. I am a control freak too, so I have trouble asking for help.

NE: So some days I'm coaching myself on my drive into work, and I'm like, okay, today I will bring Amber in and we'll talk. And I was just going to have her sit next to me, and I'm just going to say, send this, send this. So that's what I've been doing. I have to coach myself into releasing tasks.

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TC: She and I are going through finding that balance, and it's tough. And I want to be available to her, my son, my wife, my own family. But finding that balance, being available, being present, not being on my phone, having a conversation, and the text comes in and I get distracted. And I'm like, but I need to be paying attention here. I know those things, but it's something to work on.

FINAL TAKEAWAY: MAKE YOUR TIME COUNT

Here's something to try this week. Keep track of where your time actually goes. Not just the big meetings and projects, but the little interruptions and tasks that add up throughout the day.

At the end of the week, look for one thing you could eliminate, simplify, or hand off. Then decide what you want that time back for.

Because the goal isn't to do more. It's to make more room for what matters, both in your business and outside of it.