#191 The CEO Hour - 1 Hour That Frees Up 10

If you're constantly working but still feel behind, this episode is for you.

In this conversation, we're unpacking the real reason time feels so scarce, and it's not what you think. You'll hear why the usual fixes (like waking up earlier or getting a new planner) aren’t working, and what needs to shift instead if you want more space, clarity, and control over your week.

This is the mindset shift my clients make before they reclaim hours of their time and start running their business like a true CEO.

🎧 Listen in, then join me for the free webinar this Thursday 24 July 2025:
 The CEO Hour: The Time System That Takes 1 Hour and Frees Up 10
Sign up here → https://ilonkaras.com/ceohour

Book a consultation here, and let's start designing a business that works FOR YOU.

Link to Music Credits
Track: Positive Motivation
Author: AShamaluevMusic (ASM)
Publisher: CD Baby (IPI 700570289)

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Transcript

This is episode 191 and today we are talking about the system I teach my clients that takes less than an hour to implement and frees up at least 10 hours in your schedule every week. If you want to work less and make more in your business, this is where to start. Let's go.

One of the biggest reasons we start businesses is because we want ownership over our time. The question is, do you actually feel like you have that? Can you do what you want, when you want, and still grow and enjoy the success you imagined? If you're listening to this podcast, I know you want to grow your business and have a life. Time for your family, time for yourself, time to rest without guilt.

To be a whole person, not just a business owner. We don't build our businesses thinking that it will take over our whole identity. And somehow it does for many of us. I see this whenever my clients free up time in their work schedule and they panic for a moment because they don't know what to do with that free time. We've been so focused on business that we're not even sure what our passions are outside of it. 

And even though time freedom was the goal and perhaps still is, we slowly but surely make peace with the fact that this might just not be a realistic expectation. You would think with the amount of books on the subject of time management that this would be a simple problem to solve, but it's not. The opposite is true. Instead of feeling in control over our time, we are experiencing more time anxiety than ever.

That nagging feeling that time is running out, that you're behind, that there just aren't enough hours in your day. Maybe you lie awake at night thinking about everything that you forgot. You try to switch off on the weekend, but your brain just won't let you. And even when you do find a few hours to rest, you feel guilty for not being more productive. 

On the flip side of this, you may also be struggling with finding the time to spend on the strategic growth of your business, the big picture things that you just can't seem to get to because there is always something urgent that's putting you back into the day-to-day of running your business. 

According to a study published by Agility PR Solutions, 73 % of business owners say that they want to spend more time on strategy, but their time gets eaten up by email, admin, and other reactive tasks that feel urgent in the moment but aren't necessarily moving the business forward in a meaningful way.

The study also reports that the majority of business owners are working 50 plus hours a week, but would prefer to be working closer to 40. So even with all the resources available out there on the subject of managing our time, there is still a massive gap and tons of business owners who are overworking and still feeling like they are behind. And it's because time management isn't the answer. 

We cannot manage the hours and minutes we have in our day. And focusing on trying to manage our time just creates more anxiety and ironically less time for the things that actually matter to us.

Our brains aren't designed to help us thrive. They are designed to keep us safe. 
We aren't programmed to remember the berries that taste the sweetest. Our brains programmed to help us remember the berries that will kill us. We react to our time in the same way we react to threats out in the wild. We're in this constant battle with time, managing tasks, hustling to keep up and responding to whatever or whomever is the loudest.

And even though we are not getting any better at managing our time, it is what productivity culture keeps pulling us back to. Work faster, get more done, push harder, rest when you're dead. It's time to get off this merry-go-round. It's time to think differently about your time and how you spend it. To let go of the time rules you are holding yourself to that actually makes zero sense for the life and business you want to create. It's the voice in your head that says, I'll feel better once I've cleared my inbox. But you never actually clear your inbox. So you never feel done. There's always new emails coming in. 

It's telling yourself it's faster if I just do it myself. Even though you are spending hours on tasks someone else could be trained to handle on your behalf. It's believing that I can't take time to plan. I'm too behind when planning is exactly what would stop you feeling behind. It's that low level guilt every time you take a break because deep down you believe rest is something you earn, not something you build your business with. All of these thoughts feel logical in the moment, but they are keeping you stuck in a cycle of overworking and under prioritising the things that actually move your business forward. Now you don't need more hours in your day. 

You actually just need to make better decisions with the hours you already have. And I don't mean be more productive or get more done faster. This isn't about squeezing more into your schedule so that you can maybe, hopefully, close your laptop a little bit earlier. It's about designing your business so that it fits into your life, not the other way around. Now, when clients come to me, they're overwhelmed, anxious, stuck in cycles of reacting all week long.

They've tried new tools, awesome planners, waking up at 5 a.m., doing things in advance, hoping that they will finally get ahead, but none of it works. And it's because those time hacks don't work when your thinking around time hasn't changed. The shift that needs to happen is this. You need to move from being reactive around time to being intentional with how you invest it. You need a system, a rhythm.

for how you plan, lead and invest your time week by week. The good news is it takes less than an hour a week to do this. And I am teaching you how in a free live training this coming Thursday, 24 July 2025. This class is called the CEO Hour and I will be teaching you a simple system to get the most important things done every week, honor your commitments to yourself and have more free time in your schedule.

I'm going to show you the most common time wasters that keep you stuck in cycles of 14 hour days and still feeling behind. A simple routine that will help you get everything that matters done while also freeing up time in your week. And also, you will learn how to do what you say you're going to do every time and how to feel calm when things don't go according to plan.

You will learn how to have a productive week every week and never feel like you don't have enough time ever again. It's free and it's live and it will change the way you look at your time forever. You can sign up at ilonkaras.com/ceohour. If you are listening to this episode after the 24th of July, you can still register and watch the recording of the class. I hope you have an amazing day. I look forward to seeing you at the workshop and I'll chat to you again next week.