"I Don't Have Time": Sharpen Your Axe and Focus on Growth

"I don't have time" is the most common reason businesses stop growing. It's almost never true. What's true is that all the time is going to the wrong work — and the fix begins with an old story about a woodcutter.

The woodcutter and the blunt axe

A woodcutter spends all day chopping. The harder he swings, the fewer trees fall — because his axe is going blunt with every strike. A passer-by asks, "Why don't you stop and sharpen it?" The woodcutter, sweating and exhausted, replies, "I don't have time to sharpen — I'm too busy cutting."

That is most business owners. Swinging harder and harder at a blunt edge, certain they can't afford to pause.

But here is the point I want you to take from this story: you should stop, again and again, to sharpen the axe — because a sharp axe delivers more result for less effort. And the axe isn't only the tool in your hand. The sharpest axe you own is your own mind. So you must pause, regularly, to sharpen your thinking too — step back, reflect, plan, learn. The founder who keeps stopping to sharpen their mind out-cuts the one who never lifts their head, every single time.

First, see where your time actually goes

To sharpen, you first have to see the blade. Every task you do falls on three simple axes. Sort your work honestly against all three:

• Operations vs Growth — does this task just keep the lights on (operations), or does it actually grow the business (growth)?
• Drain vs Energy — does it drain you, or energise you?
• Love vs Hate — do you love doing it, or hate it?

List your recurring tasks and tag each one. The pattern is always revealing: most of the day is spent on operations that drain you and that you hate — pure fire-fighting — while the growth work that energises you keeps getting pushed to "later." That misallocation, not a lack of hours, is the real problem.

Then apply the 4D Formula

Once each task is tagged, decide its fate with four Ds (plus a modern fifth):

• Delegate — hand off the operations/drain/hate tasks to someone better placed to do them.
• Defer — schedule what matters but isn't urgent, so it doesn't crowd today.
• Delete — kill the tasks that don't actually need doing at all. Most lists are full of them.
• Do it now — the high-value growth work that only you can do? Do it, now, with focus.
• Automate — and increasingly, hand the repetitive work to tools and AI so it runs without you.

The simplest version: if a task is example: operation, drain, hate → delegate it. If it's growth, energy, love → do it now. That single sorting move is the act of sharpening the axe.

Delegate, then refocus on growth

Sharpening is pointless if you go straight back to chopping the same trees. So after you delegate and delete, deliberately redirect the freed-up time:

• Analyse your time allocation. Be honest about how much goes to fire-fighting versus growth. For most owners, it's lopsided toward fire-fighting.
• Delegate the non-growth tasks to your team, freeing yourself for strategic work.
• Protect at least 4 hours a day for growth. Block it, defend it, and spend it only on the strategic activities that move the business forward over the long term.

Four focused hours a day on growth will out-build sixteen frantic hours of fire-fighting. That is the woodcutter's lesson, applied to a business.

Recommended reading

These are the books I recommend to any founder who wants to sharpen their mind, delegate well, and focus on what compounds:

• The ONE Thing — Gary Keller & Jay PapasanOn extreme focus: the one thing that makes everything else easier or unnecessary.
• Who Not How — Dan Sullivan & Dr. Benjamin HardyThe art of delegation — stop asking "how do I do this?" and start asking "who can?"
• The E-Myth Revisited — Michael E. GerberWhy most small businesses stay stuck working in the business instead of on it.
• Rich Dad Poor Dad — Robert T. KiyosakiA mindset shift on money, assets and building wealth that works for you.

Remember where this all started: only and only you are responsible for your growth — or your degrowth. Sharpening the axe is how you take that responsibility seriously. When you're ready to put the freed-up time to work, start with the three levers that double your sales.