Jenny Blake: Create More Free Time (Episode 240)

In this episode, Jenny Blake joins Charlie on the show to talk about free time and how systems can help us create more of it in our busy lives. The real goal of effective systems is to help us do our best work, free up our energy, and pursue what matters to us. Jenny and Charlie discuss what keeps people from building the right systems, why our ideas of hard work play into the systems we build, and how to start creating more free time in our businesses and personal lives. If you want more free time, this episode is going to be an eye-opener.

Key Takeaways:

[3:13] How did Jenny end up with the book Free Time? She explains how she was inspired to write her first two books, Life After College and Pivot, and Free Time is about optimizing what's now.

[6:54] A lot of books on systems tend to be quite dense and complex. Jenny's aim was to bring some levity to the conversation with her book.

[9:23] For business owners, Charlie highlights some important things to keep in mind about people sharing their numbers.

[12:57] What is Free Time about? At its core, it's a book that helps you make your business work for you without so much work to make it work.

[19:25] We need to start thinking about systems differently. A system is essentially a set of interrelated, interconnected parts that produce a consistent result. Oftentimes, in organizations, it can feel like people are at fault, but the underlying issues may be the work systems that have been created.

[21:52] Jenny shares some examples of the importance of having systems on the personal and household front.

[34:45] When we look at the things we don’t like to do or are not good at doing from another perspective, we can actually see that there are people out there who are good at it, and who want to do it, and will benefit economically from doing it.

[37:29] One of the things we have to take seriously in all teams is the energy and emotions that we inject into them.

[40:32] The bottleneck and chief constraint in a business is often not time, but energy and attention.

[43:51] Jenny and Charlie discuss infinite games and how happiness and free time tie into that.

[52:20] Creating systems can start by thinking of what you would like an ideal world to look like. The point is not to get caught in the minute details of how that is possible but merely visualize and dream what is possible.

[57:29] Strategic laziness can be a helpful concept to tap into to create systems and processes in your business to make things easier for your future self.

[62:25] Jenny invites listeners to do less. So much of free time is permission, and that permission is to be a little bit radical with your free time.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Productive Flourishing

Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done, by Charlie Gilkey

Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business, by Jenny Blake

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One. by Jenny Blake

Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want. by Jenny Blake 

Productive Flourishing Podcast “Episode 72: How to Embrace Uncertainty Through a Career Change with Jenny Blake”

Pivot Podcast

Free Time Podcast

One Stone Creative

The Infinite Game, by Simon Sinek

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport

Tim Ferris, Strategic Laziness

Andrew Wilkinson — Lazy Leadership