You buy back your time by paying for convenience and expertise, protecting your attention and treating every hour as if it had a high price. The hosts say they hate one thing more than anything else: wasting precious time. They feel robbed of something impossible to get back, so whenever there is an option to buy time, they take it without a second thought.
These are the 15 ways they do it, grouped into six parts, with a bonus question at the end that shows what really eats your hours.
Watch the full video here, or skip to the breakdown below.
The 15 ways at a glance
- 1-3. Skip the line, pay in advance and buy in bulk (0:28)
- 4-5. Cleaning services and coaches and mentors (3:17)
- 6-7. Stay in your lane and hire a trainer and chef (5:22)
- 8-9. Shorten the commute and outsource low-value tasks (7:09)
- 10-12. Be unavailable, schedule recharge and block attention (8:59)
- 13-15. Match energy to importance, bundle meetings and use momentum (10:51)
1-3. Skip the line, pay in advance and buy in bulk
Number one is not standing in line. Standing in line feels like a relic. Pretty much everything has a priority pass or a way to skip the queue, from the airport to bureaucratic paperwork, and many businesses sell run-around-and-gather services. Early on you have more time than money, so you do everything yourself. If that is still true a few years in, you are just not efficient. Ask what an hour of your time is worth, and whether that amount is worth spending in a queue. The video’s view is that choosing a line when there are alternatives means you do not value your time.
Number two is paying everything in advance. Managing monthly expenses is a boring chore. Audit your month, and do bills and subscriptions in advance and in bulk. Paying yearly is also cheaper. A paid-up yearly gym membership makes it easier to return after a break, since there is no friction and no I-would-but-I-have-to-pay-a-month-again excuse. A couple of hours buys a year of not thinking about it.
Number three is buying once in larger quantities. Picking every tomato at the farmers market is lovely once a month. The rest of the time they buy in bulk. The aim is not to need to leave the house for months because everything is already there. Tracking inventory gets tiresome, and bulk buying brings self-sufficiency and the peace of mind of being prepared.
If your hour is worth more than the errand, hand the errand off.
4-5. Cleaning services and coaches and mentors
Number four is paying for cleaning services. A cleaner will do a better and faster job than you, and the video calls these services highly underrated. Hiring one is not a luxury for the ultra-wealthy but a practical investment in reclaiming time and sanity. Instead of dreading cleaning day, you return to a pristine home without lifting a finger. A clear, organised space also affects your mental and emotional health. If it is a viable option for you, get one.
Number five is coaches and mentors. In their effort to optimise time, the hosts found great value in guidance from experienced people. It is the closest thing to a real-life shortcut: mentors speed up progress, multiply results and remove years of trial and error. A good mentor, the video says, can save you millions of dollars and years of your life.
A good mentor removes years of trial and error.
6-7. Stay in your lane and hire a trainer and chef
Number six is not spending energy in areas where your expertise is low. That is what accountants, lawyers and doctors are for. If you waste time on something you are not good at, you are in the wrong business. Find your limits and add other people’s expertise. People spend years mastering a skill, and you will not do it in a weekend because you are ambitious. The result is a headache and regret that you did not hire someone. A huge amount of time goes on thinking you can do something faster than someone qualified to do it.
Number seven is a personal chef and trainer. No number of YouTube videos fully replaces a proper trainer, whose job is to streamline the process and get you as fit as possible, as fast and as healthily as possible. When Hollywood actors need to get in shape fast, they hire a trainer, not a fitness course. The logic matches the mentor: they have seen what it takes, know what you will do wrong and keep you in the right lane. A personal chef is self-explanatory, and a service delivering high-quality ready-to-cook food counts if a chef is out of range. Wondering what to have for dinner gets annoying.
Hire the person who already knows the shortcut.
8-9. Shorten the commute and outsource low-value tasks
Number eight is moving closer to work, or bringing work closer to you. The hosts never commute and spend about 5 minutes getting to the office, at a slow walk. If you have an extra $200 to $300 monthly, one of the best uses is to live closer to your points of interest. The video does the maths with an hour of your time valued at $300: two hours of commuting is $600 gone daily, almost 20 grand a month in the perceived value of your time.
Number nine is outsourcing repetitive and low-value tasks. Just because you can do something yourself does not mean you must. Mundane activities drain productive and creative energy, and as long as you stay stuck in them you will not break free. People say it only takes 30 minutes, but the video says it is about brain power, not time. You have a set amount of bandwidth each day and every decision shrinks it. If all you do is mundane work, you will not see the big picture, let alone decide about it. Admin has to get done, but it does not have to be you.
Brain power is the budget, and minutes are only part of it.
10-12. Be unavailable, schedule recharge and block attention
Number ten is making yourself unavailable. People usually do not want to bother you, but they will if you let them, because an open door is an invitation. You need to actively be unavailable when you must focus. Some people will think you are upset or cold and unapproachable, because they do not get that this is your time to focus.
Number eleven is that unassigned time will get interrupted. As soon as you look like you are doing nothing, people poke at your time, even when you are using it to recharge your creative energy. If your calendar is free, someone will put a slot in it. Schedule recharge time the same way you schedule work.
Number twelve is blocking your attention. Interruptions are like restarting a movie every 30 minutes. You have total control over this, and it is your duty to use it. Block any diversion when something needs your attention, and if you can have a place away from anything attention-hungry, even better. Working from home means building a workspace. Close tabs, silence the phone and use an app if needed. Noise-cancelling headphones also work, and the hosts wear them when they write.
If your calendar looks free, someone will fill it.
13-15. Match energy to importance, bundle meetings and use momentum
Number thirteen is overlapping creative energy with task importance, which the hosts call almost a cheat code. It is hard to work on something of high value or return when you are scraping the energy barrel. For most people the peak is in the morning. For the hosts the day is won by 1pm and the rest is a bonus. The idea got more fleshed out through Cal Newport’s concept of deep work: there is a period, usually in the morning, when your brain is at full power, and that is when to do the important work.
Number fourteen is bundling back-to-back meetings. Short meetings in a row let you talk to people without feeling you spent the day on nothing. On a meeting day, it is a meeting day. Bundling similar activities saves time because you do not have to shift mood. If you must be creative in the morning, analytical at noon and decisive in the evening, you will move slowly. We are not built to switch whole thinking systems that quickly.
Number fifteen is abusing momentum. The hosts found that three fully packed days feel faster and more effective than five balanced ones. Momentum carries you from one thing to the next while everything is still fresh. The more time you give a task, the longer it takes.
The more time you allow for a task, the longer it takes.
Bonus: put an outlandish price on your time
The biggest way to buy back time, the video says, is to place an imaginary, outlandish price on it, an idea credited to Naval Ravikant. Imagine your work time is valued at $10,000 an hour.
Then ask which things you would stop doing instantly. That answer gives you a clear idea of what really eats away at your time.
FAQ
How can I buy back my time?
The video suggests skipping lines, paying bills and subscriptions in advance, buying in bulk, hiring cleaners, using coaches and mentors, outsourcing repetitive tasks and living closer to work. It also covers protecting your attention.
Is paying for a cleaner worth it?
The video says it is a practical investment in reclaiming time and sanity, not a luxury for the ultra-wealthy. A cleaner works faster and better than you, and an organised space helps mental and emotional health.
Why outsource tasks that only take 30 minutes?
The video says it is about brain power, not time. You have limited daily bandwidth, and every decision shrinks it, so mundane tasks leave less capacity for the big picture.
When should I do my most important work?
When your energy peaks. For most people, and for the hosts, that is the morning. The video links this to Cal Newport’s idea of deep work, where the brain runs at full power.
What is the best trick for buying back time?
Put an outlandish price on it. Imagine your work time is worth $10,000 an hour and ask what you would stop doing instantly. That shows what is eating your time.
Keep reading
- 15 Productivity Habits to Win Back Your Time & Life
- 10 Ways to Make Money Work For You
- 15 Ways to Reduce SCREEN TIME
