For experienced women in leadership and entrepreneurship who make the choices that redefine their future.
In my strategic partnerships, I follow the Buy-Back-Your-Time Method. The method that gives you insight into the gap between what you say you value and what you actually do with your time.
Imagine it’s ten or twenty years from now. Your children are grown, your parents have gotten older, and your business has changed. And then you’re given one day back. How would you spend it? Would you choose that meeting or networking event again—the one that doesn’t really add anything? On that client who’s been draining your energy for months? On that new project or proposal that, deep down, you know no longer fits? Or would you consciously choose the people, the conversations, and the work that will later make you say: “I’m glad I made a difference there and spent my time on it”?
Most women I ask this question say they would do it differently. And then I ask: ‘So what’s stopping you from doing things differently today?’
That question is at the heart of everything.
Why the scarcest capital is invested with the least deliberation
Successful women in business typically focus on financial capital. They know what their time is worth. They keep a close eye on their income and carefully consider their pricing, assessing which investments will pay off and which won’t. These are skills they’ve developed through their upbringing, education, and years of working, learning, and adjusting.
But there is one form of capital that virtually every woman I speak with systematically manages with less care than her money. And that is precisely the capital that cannot be recouped once it has been spent. Your time, energy, and attention are your most valuable—and also your most limited—assets.
Time, energy, and attention are finite in a way that money is not. Money is energy; it is always there, everywhere, because what is lost can, in principle, be recouped. Time, however, does not return. A day spent on something that doesn’t yield a return is not a loss you can make up for by working harder the next day. Time that passes is simply gone.
And why is your schedule filled based on what comes in, what’s requested, what’s expected, and what was planned long ago? And not based on the question: Is this the best investment of my most scarce resource?
Why is time the most important asset in leadership and entrepreneurship?
Because time is the only resource that generates all other forms of capital and cannot itself be replenished. Financial capital compounds over time. Intellectual capital deepens and enriches itself over time. Relationships deepen over time. Status is built up over time. But all these forms of capital require that you consciously allocate time to them.
Devote your time and energy to the things and people that matter.
Every day that passes without a conscious allocation of time is a day on which you lose the compound effect—a loss that can never be recovered. That makes time capital not only the scarcest, but also the most strategic asset.
The Hidden Costs of an Agenda That Reacts Rather Than Invests
Are you busy? Are you stressed? Because we sure are busy. Exceptionally busy, in fact. But if you take an honest look at your calendar, you’ll see that a significant portion of that busyness wasn’t chosen—it just grew. Out of loyalty to your family, relatives, friends, social activities, company, team, existing clients, partnerships, and so on. We often cling to existing commitments and routines out of a sense of obligation to promises made in the past. Out of the habit of being available to anyone who asks for your attention. Out of the silent fear that doing less means being worth less.
An agenda that reacts does not invest.
The difference is crucial. A reactive schedule is filled with whatever comes your way. An investing agenda is structured around what you want to grow. A reactive agenda is exhausting, no matter how full or successful it may seem. An investing agenda compounds, because every day you spend consciously builds something that will be worth more tomorrow than it was yesterday.
In my premium 1-on-1 6-month Scale to Freedom Reallocating time and energy is always one of the first and most challenging steps. Not because the women I work with don’t know this. They know it, they feel it, but knowing and doing are two fundamentally different things when the pressures of daily life take up all their space. That’s why I always start with a “live day,” and we use this day to take a step back from the everyday, because that’s what’s needed to make conscious choices.
How can you strategically invest your time and energy?
You can do this by applying the same principles to your schedule as you do to your finances. First of all, that means eliminate: Which appointments, commitments, and clients in your calendar aren’t yielding the results you expect, and are you keeping them out of habit, loyalty, or fear? Second, simplify: What’s left when you keep only what aligns with who you want to be and what you want to build? Third, be mindful reallocate: The time freed up isn’t spent on rest or on a new obligation, but on the activities, relationships, and projects that add value. In that order, because anyone who starts reallocating without first eliminating has simply rearranged a full schedule.
What the "Buy Back Your Time" Method Really Reveals
The power of the Buy-Back-Your-Time Method doesn't lie in the question itself. It lies in what the question makes impossible: convincing yourself that you're satisfied with a schedule you didn't choose.
Because if you answer honestly the question of how you would spend this day if you were given it back from the future, you’ll inevitably end up at the places where you don’t let your time and energy go. The people you don’t see often enough. The work you keep putting off because there’s always something more urgent. The quiet you need but don’t take. The choices you’ve known for a long time but haven’t made yet.
That confrontation is challenging and also means choosing what’s right for you. And that you’ll end up making unpopular choices that others will have opinions about. But it’s the only way to see the gap between what you truly value and what you actually spend your life on. And that gap is the core of what I mean when I say that strategic investing starts with your time and energy—before money. Ultimately, you reinvest your profits to free yourself up again and, so to speak, buy back your time.
In this way, your financial capital compounds when you invest it consciously and consistently in opportunities that yield a return. Time capital does exactly the same thing, but only if you manage it with the same discipline, the same clarity, and the same willingness to make choices as you do with your finances. Anyone who manages her money strategically but fills her time reactively is building a foundation without actually accumulating wealth or (time) freedom. Those who consciously manage both create a compounding effect that extends across all dimensions of their life and business simultaneously.
That's my philosophy of The Compound™. Don’t work harder. Don’t pack your schedule full. But always be willing to ask yourself: When I look back on this day later, will I be glad that I spent my most precious resource on this? How would you spend the day if you could redesign it from that future perspective?
Answering these kinds of questions gives you insight into the gap between what you say you value and how you actually spend your time—and that’s exactly the information you need for conscious reallocation. It becomes tangible in the smallest decisions you make every day. In the appointment you cancel because you’d rather spend your time differently. In the project you let go of because it no longer aligns with who you want to be. In the conversation you have—not because it’s on the agenda, but because you’ll be glad you had it later. In the space you create—not for rest, but for the investments that truly compound.
I had to learn this the hard way. What I’ve discovered is that the quality of the decisions you make about your time and energy determines the quality of everything that follows. Not your money, not your network, not your knowledge—although those are all important and play a role as well. But the willingness to ask yourself every day, consistently and without self-deception: Am I investing my most scarce resource in what truly compounds?
How do you consciously decide what to devote your life to?
By structurally integrating this question into the way you manage your schedule. This starts with defining your personal values, criteria, and investment framework: for which people, which projects, and which work are you willing to commit your most precious asset—and for which are you no longer willing to do so? Next, evaluate every new commitment before you accept it, rather than after. And on a regular basis (monthly or quarterly), apply the Buy-Back-Your-Time Method to check whether your calendar still reflects what you truly want to invest in. That’s not time management. It’s comprehensive asset management on a personal, business, and financial level.
Four Questions Worth Asking
- If you were to look back on today ten years from now, which appointments in your calendar for this week would you not make again?
- Where does your most valuable possession end up—based on habit or external pressure, rather than a conscious choice?
- Which people, projects, or activities do you want to devote more time and energy to, and what’s standing in your way right now?
- If your schedule were an investment portfolio, would you be satisfied with the return it yields on your time and energy? And what does that mean in terms of impact, influence, and wealth building?
Do you want to know where you stand?
The Compound™ Growth Scan shows you in ten minutes how your personal, business, and financial capital currently relate to one another and where the biggest opportunities lie that you’re currently leaving untapped.
Strategically simplified decision-making, without detours.
→ Take The Compound™ Growth Scan
The Compound Scan™ identifies areas where your value exceeds what your current position reflects, and where the greatest leverage lies for strategically compounding your personal, professional, and financial potential.
One Life. Lead it. Live it.
Gerdi Hulsink
Your success and freedom. My mission.
PS. Scale to Freedom is my six-month strategic partnership for women who are ready to take on the role that fits who they’ve become—not who they used to be. If you feel that your expertise and your role have drifted apart, start with the scan.
PPS. The Compound Board is a private strategic community for women who take their lives, leadership, and legacy seriously. In-person events, online sessions, direct strategic feedback, and an environment where you’re surrounded by women who are taking the same steps. Request an interview to discuss whether this is appropriate.
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For the high-achieving woman who wants to let her values guide her and grow her wealth.
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