As the CEO of your business, your most valuable asset is time. Yet, most business owners waste hours every week on tasks that don’t actually grow their business. They’re stuck replying to emails, commenting on social media, or organizing inventory. Sound familiar?
If you want to scale, you need to shift your focus. That starts with understanding the difference between revenue-generating and non-revenue-generating tasks—and using that knowledge to reclaim your schedule.
Here’s how to stop spinning your wheels and start driving real results.
Step One: Understand the Two Task Categories
Revenue-generating tasks directly create income or open doors to future income. These include:
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Sales calls and client consultations
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Writing proposals and contracts
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Networking with referral partners
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Creating new offers or services
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Hosting webinars or workshops
- Pitching to media or podcasts
- Analyzing marketing or sales metrics
Non-revenue-generating tasks keep the business moving, but don’t create income. Think:
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Checking and responding to emails
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Organizing files
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Scheduling social posts
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Scheduling meetings
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Managing inventory
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Answering general inquiries
- Updating your website
- Customer service follow-up
- Manually onboarding clients
These may feel urgent. But they’re not your priority as the CEO because they are not moving the needle forward on your bottom line.
Step Two: Track How You Spend Your Time
Before you can fix the problem, you need to measure it.
Take one week and log your time using our free task tracking spreadsheet. Every time you switch tasks, note:
What you did
How long it took
Whether it was revenue-generating or not
Be honest. This isn’t about judgment. It’s about clarity.
PRO TIP: Another option to organize your tasks is to implement the Eisenhower Matrix into your work week. This method has transformed our workday and we are now purpose driven, focused and successfully moving the needle forward.
Step Three: Add It Up and Analyze the Data
After tracking for a week, add up the total time spent in each column.
You may be shocked. Most CEOs spend 60–80% of their week on non-revenue-generating tasks.
That’s backwards. Your highest-value work—the work that brings in money—should be your focus. If you’re spending more than 30% of your timne outside revenue work, it’s time to pivot.
Step Four: Assign a Dollar Value to Your Time
Here’s a game-changing mindset shift:
Not all tasks are equal—and neither is your time.
Imagine your business earns $100,000 per year. Divide that by 2,000 work hours. That’s $50/hour. But your high-impact tasks—like closing deals or launching offers—are worth far more. These are your $500 tasks.
Now divide tasks into:
$50 tasks: Inbox management, admin, scheduling, editing graphics
$500 tasks: Strategic partnerships, sales, marketing campaigns, growth planning, developing new revenue streams
You’re not meant to run the backend. You’re meant to drive the brand forward. As CEO, your time belongs in the $500 bucket. Delegate everything else.
Step Five: Decide What to Outsource First
Look at the non-revenue-generating list. What tasks do you dislike, aren’t good at, are time-consuming, or draining?
These are your first tasks to outsource.
Start with:
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Inbox management
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Scheduling and calendar updates
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Social media engagement
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Data entry
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Client onboarding
- Creating automation or program onboarding
- Lead filtering
Virtual assistants can handle all of these, and they’re often more efficient than you.
Step Six: Build a Support System
Outsourcing isn’t an expense—it’s an investment. You’re buying back time to focus on $500 tasks that actually grow your business.
At I Said Yes! to Success, we provide done-for-you solutions that take over your $50 tasks. We integrate directly into your business so you can step fully into the CEO seat.
Need help implementing the task tracker? Download the spreadsheet here. We’ll even show you how to use it.
PRO TIP: Success is built on clarity and consistency. At the end of each month, review your task tracker:
Are you still doing tasks that don’t grow your business?
Are you working inside your zone of genius?
Are you prioritizing money-making activities?
If not, it’s time to adjust.
The Bottom Line
Your business doesn’t grow when you do it all. It grows when you show up like a CEO and focus on revenue. Stop spending your time on the $50 work. Start investing it in $500 growth.
Download the free task tracking spreadsheet and reclaim your schedule, and let’s build a business that runs like a machine—with you at the top.
Need help with the outsourcing part? That’s what we’re here for. We help you business run with power and purpose. Schedule a Success Call with I Said Yes! to Success.
