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Episode 1381 · Nov 12, 2026

Create a Better Return on Your Time

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If someone could only see your calendar — not your goals list, not your vision board, just the way you actually spend your hours — what would they say your priorities are? Would that picture match the business and the life you say you want to build? George Wright III opens this episode of The Daily Mastermind with that question, recorded during a Board of Advisors week at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas, where he was investing time in relationships, learning, and future opportunities instead of grinding through the inbox.

It's an uncomfortable audit, and that's the point. If your actions don't match what you say you want, it's doubtful you truly want it. This episode is about how to get a better return on your time — treating your hours the way a serious investor treats capital, and making conscious decisions before the demands around you make them for you.

How to Get a Better Return on Your Time Starts With Your Calendar

Think about how carefully you'd evaluate a significant financial investment. You'd want to understand the potential return. You'd ask whether it fits your goals. You'd consider what opportunities you'd be giving up to make it. Your time deserves exactly that level of attention — and almost nobody gives it.

George points out that the returns are real and measurable. An hour invested in developing a team member saves hours of answering the same questions later. Time invested in the right relationship opens doors you can't open alone. Time protecting your health or your family supports the quality of the life you're working so hard to build. But every one of those things needs room on the calendar. They rarely happen just because you hope that someday things will slow down.

Stepping away from daily demands always creates tension. There's work waiting. There are decisions stacking up. There's always more that could be done. That tension is normal — and it's also the clearest reminder that if you don't decide where your time goes, the noise around you will decide for you.

Why Time Is Your Greatest Asset

Before any time management tactic works, there's a belief that has to shift. You have to accept that your time is your greatest asset. Not your money, not your network — your time, because it's the great equalizer. Everyone receives the same amount of it.

You can waste it, you can spend it, you can let it slip by, or you can choose to invest it in things that will create value and reward for you.

Until you decide your time has value, you won't prioritize it, and you'll never spend it wisely. George draws the parallel to money: when you don't track your budget, cash flows in and out and you end up with more month at the end of the money. Time works the same way. What you focus on grows. When you stop tracking and valuing your hours, they disappear — and at the end of the day you genuinely can't say where they went.

Flexible Time Is Created Through Choices, Not Wishful Thinking

Here's the objection George hears constantly: *It's easy for you — you own your business, you make your own schedule.* True today. Not always true, and never accidental.

My free time and flexible time is a result of managing my time, working hard, and creating a return of more time. Sometimes the best return you can get on your time is more time.

Flexible time isn't a perk handed to certain people. It's a byproduct of being intentional with commitments over a long stretch. You can't spend your days responding to the whims of life and expect to randomly free yourself up. That never happens. Life will quietly bury you in the mediocrity of being average — your own mind and habits will take advantage of you if you let them.

The first pattern to break is the thought *I don't have enough time.* That belief is what created the situation in the first place. George cites Tony Robbins' framing: everything comes down to resources (time and money) and resourcefulness (your ability to create change). And ultimately it's resourcefulness that matters most, because if you become more resourceful, you will find more time and more money.

Practical Time Management Tips to Get More Productive

The best way to manage your time better is to actually look at your time. Write down where it goes for a few days. It sounds basic. It's an eye-opener every single time.

Build the Structure

Start with goals — they're the benchmarks you schedule everything around. Then use an actual planner or calendar; without one, your time is getting spent the same way untracked money is. Prioritize the big rocks first and let everything else fill in around them, and don't negotiate those blocks away. Set time limits on meetings before they begin instead of letting them drag. Take breaks between tasks rather than grinding straight through. And as Brendon Burchard teaches, reset your intention at the start of each new activity — naming your goal for that block can cut the time it takes to a fraction.

Get organized, because overwhelm and clutter in other areas quietly eat your hours. George's partner Robert Stuberg sets a goal every year to delegate or eliminate something. Accounting, landscaping, cleaning — George outsources all three because his time is worth more. And plan your schedule in advance: successful people don't wake up asking what they'll do today. They already know, which is why you can't get on their calendar for a week.

Protect Your Attention

Don't check your phone the moment you wake up — give yourself 30 to 60 minutes. You're literally wiring your brain for responsive mode instead of proactive mode. Hold email until the afternoon, after the most important work is done. Open your phone's settings and look at your actual screen time; it will blow your mind. And block out time for an evening routine, because sleep quality affects everything else in your day.

Action Steps

  • Pull up your calendar from the last two weeks and ask what a stranger would say your real priorities are.
  • Pick one big rock for this week — a relationship, your health, a team member — and put it on the calendar before anything else fills the space.
  • Check your phone's screen time report and set one specific limit based on what you find.
  • Name one task to delegate or eliminate this month, and start the handoff now.
  • Wait 30 to 60 minutes after waking before touching your phone or email.

Pick one area to change this week. Not ten. One. Because when you start treating your time like the asset it is, your productivity, your income, your relationships, and your quality of life all compound in the same direction. It's never too late to start living the life you were meant to live.

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT

All right, guys, I want you to take a look at your calendar. If someone could only see how you spend your time, what would they think your priorities are? You know, would that picture match the business and life that you say you want to create? Because if your actions don't match what you say you want, it's doubtful that you truly, truly want it. Welcome back to the Daily Mastermind. George Wright III here. I'm at Board of Advisors all week at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas. We're talking investing time in relationships, learning, thinking about future opportunities. And you know what? whenever you step away from your daily demands of your business, there's tension. There's work waiting. There's decisions to make. There's always more things that could be done. You know what that feeling is. And I understand that feeling. But it's also a good reminder that we have to make conscious decisions about where our time goes. Otherwise, the demands around us are just always going to take up our time and they're going to make the decisions for us. So think about how carefully you would evaluate a significant financial investment if you were doing that. You'd want to understand the potential return. You'd want to consider whether it fits your goals, and you'd ask what opportunities you might be giving up in order to do it. But our time deserves the same kind of attention. You know, an hour invested, you know as well as I do, when you invest an hour in developing a team member, you could save hours of answering questions later on. Time invested in the right relationship could open up new opportunities. Time protecting, you know, your health or your family can support the quality of life that you're working so hard to build. But those things need room on the calendar. And that's the problem a lot of us make. They rarely happen just because, you know, you hope someday you're going to slow down and get the time to do it. So today, these are thoughts that are coming to me as I'm here at Board of Advisors that I want to share with you. Today, I'm revisiting maybe one of my all-time most listened to episodes about treating your time as an actual asset, your greatest asset. You know, it talks about practical ideas for tracking where your time goes, protecting your priorities, planning ahead, or deciding what to delegate or eliminate. But one thought I want you to listen for is that flexible time is something you create through your choices. Let me say this again. You know, flexible time, it's something you create through your choices is in the way you manage your commitments. And that is the empowering thought I want to leave you with. So as you listen to this, ask yourself, what's this thing that I can change this week? What's the area that I can modify this week to make room for something that really, really matters? That's what I talk about all the time on the Franklin Planner Podcast. So I want to cue this up. It's time is your greatest asset. Let's get right into it. Can't wait to hear your feedback on this. Talk with you soon. All right, welcome back to The Daily Mastermind. My name is George Wright III. I am your host, and today we are going to get really practical. I want to give you some tips and strategies on how to get more time in your day. These are going to be ways for you to become more productive. So here's what I was thinking the other day because I've heard this comment a lot. Have you ever felt overwhelmed with your day? Have you just felt like maybe the day got away from you? You were just extremely busy. You know, maybe you felt like, I have no idea where my day went. You know, I was running errands. I was working on my business and responding to this and that and the kids and business and relationships. And, you know, time just passes away really quickly. Have you noticed how quickly the year has gone by? Have you noticed how quickly time's passing lately? well you know most importantly do you ever feel like time has passed and you didn't even realize where it went and or more importantly you feel like you didn really get anything accomplished or you didn accomplish at least your goals the things that were the most important to you Well I think we all felt this way. I know I certainly have. And it's part of just navigating this busy, crazy, fast paced life. But today I want to talk to you a little bit about how to become more productive and intentional with your time. Because when I consult and mentor, and I've got several companies and individuals I've mentored with, it always comes up that one of their biggest obstacles holding them back from their goals is their time management or their ability to find the time to work on the things that's important. And admittedly, this is one of the biggest challenges that people have. So today, let's talk about this because if you're going to go through life and continue the pattern of looking back, wondering where your time went, you're going to be filled with a lot of regret. You're just going to, you're going to not achieve your goals, your dreams, and your desires. And you're going to be constantly looking back rather than looking forward. So first and foremost, you need to realize, and this is the thing I want you to really listen to for a minute. You've got to realize, and you've got to believe, and you've got to accept that your time is your greatest asset. It's your greatest asset. I know we're focused on money and things and business and relationships, but time truly is your greatest asset because it's the greatest equalizer. Think about it for a minute. We all receive the same amount of time. Whether you believe it or not, you do control where you spend your time. You can waste it, you can spend it, or you can let it slip by, or you can choose to invest it in things that will create value and reward for you. You can invest your time to build relationships, to create an amazing business, to increase your active and your passive income, or even dedicate your time for service or philanthropy or to give back to those that you care about and so many other ideas, right? But you do control your time, whether you believe it or not. Now, until you realize and accept and decide that it has value, you're not truly going to prioritize that. You're not going to value your time. And so you'll never really spend it wisely. so that's why I wanted to start by really identifying the fact that you have to create that value in your mind for your time now you've got to learn to budget your time just like any other asset you've heard me say this before that what you focus on grows what you focus on you're going to attract more of into your life and when you don't value your time it gets wasted it gets spent it disappears and you can seem you know at the end of the day you just can't seem to figure out where it went. So just like your paycheck or the money that's been disappearing out of your bank account and you end up with more month at the end of the money, you know, you've got to learn to track and budget your time. Now, I joke and your budget's a whole other conversation for another day, but for now, let's just do this. Let's learn to prioritize and value and track our time. Because when you accept that time is your most valued asset and you treat it like an asset, it's going to begin to build in your life. You're going to build more wealth when you focus on wealth. So the second thing I want to say is that you have to be intentional with your time. You need to make specific intentional decisions with when and where and what you're going to spend your time on. It sounds simple, but most people don't do it. You need to protect your time like it's your last few dollars in your bank account. You have to ask yourself, how am I going to spend my time today to create the best return on my best life. So let's pause for a minute and let's think about this because I know what some of you are thinking. You're like, George, you know, it's easy for you to say because you have your own business. You get to wake up and work out whenever you like and you make your own schedule. And this is true, but it's not always been that way You see people think that the truth is that I have free time and flexible time And that just a benefit but that actually a result So listen to what I saying for a minute My free time and flexible time is a result of managing my time, working hard and creating a return of more time. Sometimes the best return you can get on your time is more time. This comes from working hard specifically. More importantly, it comes from being intentional with where you're spending your time. and you can't just spend your time haphazardly every day responding to the whims of life and think you're gonna you know you're gonna free yourself up that just never happens you're never gonna just somehow randomly free yourself up life is a trap it buries you in the mediocrity of being average in your existence and it takes advantage of you your mind and your time take advantage of you if you let them so you have to break out of the pattern that you and you have to break out of the thinking pattern that I don't have enough time because that's what's gotten you in this situation in the first place. Stop thinking that way. You can totally change things about your day. You have 24 hours a day. You probably sleep a third of that time anyway, or maybe you don't sleep and that's the problem as well. But Tony Robbins has been quoted as saying that everything in life and productivity comes down to two things. Number one, resources like your time and money. and number two resourcefulness which is your ability to you know create change or desire or motivate yourself for change and ultimately it really only boils down to resourcefulness because if you become more resourceful you'll find more time and money you will I believe that so your ability to be resourceful and specific and have specific intent with your time is the answer. Besides, what have you got to lose? Right now, you know, it's time to start making some changes and get your time back and start living your best life, right? So let me give you some tips on how you can create more productivity and time in your day. And hopefully these are some things that may even jog your memory or jog some ideas for you because you've heard some of these things before, but I want you to really assess your life. The best way to figure out how to manage your time better and get more time is to actually look at your time. I've had people tell me over the years, you know, write out what you're doing. And sometimes, you know, I felt, ah, that's kind of dumb. But you know, when I've done it, it's been an eye opener. So let me give you some ideas and things you can change right now. Number one, you got to set goals. You have to set goals because that's the milestone and benchmark you schedule your time around. Number two, you've got to schedule your time. You have to have a planner. If you don't have some kind of a planner, Google calendar schedule or something, then your time is getting spent. It's like not tracking your budget. You know, when money just goes in and out, you don't have any idea where it's going. How are you going to ever do anything with it? How are you ever going to make it better? A planner or a schedule is a way for you to track your time. Next thing you got to do is prioritize your activities. Always start your day and week by starting with the big rocks. Start with the things that are the most important and then let everything else fill in. And don't negotiate those times. create boundaries and barriers. And then another thing is set time limits. Don't go into meetings or events or things and just let them drag on to whatever you want them to be. Set a time limit ahead of time on what you're going to be doing. Another suggestion is take breaks in between. One of the best ways to be productive is not to just grind through your day. Split the tasks and priorities up and then in between take some breaks. What this will do is this allow you to also, I was going to suggest when you start a new task reset your intention Brendan Bouchard talks about this he does a masterful job of this because he says every time you start an activity you can just kind of go through that activity and be somewhat productive or you can be intentional you have to set your intention my goal with my time is to do this and you get it done in a tenth of the time you save yourself so much time if instead of going into work and sitting on the phone for eight hours you go in for two hours bang it out get more done you be more productive Another suggestion is to get organized Sometimes when you organize other areas of your life, your time seems to free up as well. It's that overwhelm and that clutter and that complexity of your life that's keeping you from being more streamlined. Now, one of my partners, Robert Stueberg likes to say every year he makes a goal. A lot of us try to come up with new ideas. His goal is to delegate or eliminate something in his life. There's always ways to delegate or eliminate things you're doing. There might be things other people are doing. I mean, it might sound simple, like, you know, um, taking care of your accounting, which I've outsourced, taking care of your landscaping, which I've outsourced, taking care of your cleaning, which I've outsourced because my time is worth more. So delegate or eliminate tasks that don't serve your purpose, that don't serve your goals. Be intentional. Prioritize things that match your vision. If that's not taking you in the direction of your vision, you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. Whether that's your family, friends, relationships, business, health, fitness, mindset, whatever it is. And most importantly, I want to just suggest plan your schedule in advance. Successful people don't wake up in the morning and say, what am I going to do today? Successful people already know what they're doing. That's why you can't get an appointment with them for about a week because they've already planned their week out. If you have goals and you have vision, then you should already know what you need to be working on for the entire week. And if you don't, then you don't have goals and vision or you haven't planned or prioritized your day. Those are the things that I want to suggest you start doing. Now, here's some obvious ones. Number one, don't wake up and check your phone. I'm not going to go into all the details, but give yourself 30 to 60 minutes before you check your phone. Because what you're doing is you're literally wiring your brain. Your neuroplasticity in your brain is getting you addicted to responsive mode rather than proactive mode. You've got to stop checking your phone. Number two, don't check your email. There again, you're just being reactive, not proactive. Check your email afternoon when you know you've gotten the most important things done. Another thing I would suggest to you is monitor your phone time, social media and apps and things like that. All you got to do is go to the settings of your phone. It'll tell you how much you're on your phone. It'll blow your mind how much time you're wasting every day looking at this app or that app or social media or whatever, whatever, email, text, whatever it is. Check your phone and monitor your time. Know where you're spending your time. And another thing is take time before you go to bed. Now, there are some things that may not sound productive, but when you take and block out a little bit of time for your evening rituals before you go to sleep, you're going to sleep your six hours, seven hours, eight hours, much better. It's going to be much more productive. Sleep is something you need to be productive with as well because it affects everything else in your day. So those are some additional suggestions I have. Now, these are all ways that you can create a better return on your time. They're going to lead you to more productivity in your life. And as an added bonus, you're going to start managing your time better. You're going to get tons more benefits in life and quality of life. Look, it reduces stress. You get more time. You have more opportunities. your health gets better, you have ability to recognize and realize your goals, and there's so many more benefits to time management than simply being productive. So I hope these are ideas and strategies that will motivate you, inspire you to value your time. Because if you begin to become more aware of your time and you'll treat it like an asset, you will absolutely grow and grow and grow your time, your active income, your passive income, your relationships, your business, your productivity, everything will increase. That's my message for today. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you. I hope you'll share this with other people that you feel it might help. Help us spread the message. My name is George Wright III and this has been The Daily Mastermind. Have a great day.

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About the host
George Wright III, host of The Daily Mastermind

George Wright III

George Wright III is an entrepreneur, investor, and the host of The Daily Mastermind. Over more than two decades he has founded and scaled several multimillion-dollar companies and built a renowned seminar business that put some of the world's biggest names and brands on stage. With 25+ years across marketing, sales, and executive leadership, he's made a career of turning bold ideas into results — and momentum into lasting growth.

Today his mission is singular: empower driven entrepreneurs everywhere to master their mindset, unlock their potential, and live their ultimate destiny. Through The Daily Mastermind, George shares the Prosperity Principles and strategies that help people create massive change — in their business and in their life.

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