68% of your work doesn't grow your business

In partnership with

Hey, Coach Will here,

Business builders lose 1.5 hours every day to work that doesn't move the needle.

That's not my opinion. That's from a study by Slack of 2,000 small business owners.

1.5 hours × 5 days × 50 weeks = three full work weeks gone. Every year.

If you've ever ended a 12-hour day wondering what you actually accomplished, you're not lazy.

You're stuck in the $77 trap.

Here's what nobody tells you:

The problem isn't how much you work. It's what you work on.

The average builder's time is worth about $77/hour (based on a $161K salary from Kruze Consulting's 2025 data).

But most builders spend 68% of their day on tasks worth $15/hour or less.

The question isn't "how do I work more?"

The question is: "What's actually worth my $77?"

🪣 The 3 Buckets

Every task you do falls into one of three buckets:

1. $77+ work is the stuff you're actually paid for. Strategic decisions. Key relationships. Vision. The high-stakes conversations that determine whether the business grows or stalls. This is where your $77/hour actually earns out.

2. $15-30 work is the stuff someone else could do. Admin. Scheduling. Most emails. Routine operations. Status updates. It needs to get done — but not by you.

3. $0 work is theft from your future. Distractions. Context-switching. Busywork disguised as productivity. The stuff that fills a day but builds nothing.

Here's the hidden math:

If you spend 4 hours daily on $15/hour work, you're leaving $248/day on the table.

That's $62,000/year in lost value—just from misallocated time.

Not because you're not working hard enough.

Because you're doing the wrong work.

This is where AI becomes something different.

Not a productivity hack. A strategic reallocation tool.

Every $15/hour task you hand to AI frees up a $77/hour slot for you.

I use AI tools to handle:

• First drafts of emails that used to take 20 minutes

• Research that used to eat entire afternoons

• Status summaries I'd write manually every week

Not because I'm lazy. Because my $77 hours are limited—and they're the only ones that grow the business.

The builders winning right now aren't working more.

They're protecting their $77 time like it's oxygen.

⚡ AltLevel™ Power Prompt: The $77 Audit

Act as a time optimization expert for high-performing builders and entrepreneurs.

Here’s a breakdown of what I did yesterday:
[INSERT TASK LIST]

For each task, I want you to answer the following:

What is the value level of this task: High-leverage ($77+), mid-level ($15–30), or low/no value ($0)?

Should I delegate, automate, or eliminate it? Be specific.

If I must do it myself, what’s the fastest and most efficient way to cut the time in half?

Your analysis should be direct, practical, and brutally honest. Ask me any questions you have.

📊 Quick gut check:

What's the ONE $15/hour task eating most of your time right now?

— Will

P.S. Did you know that 62% of builders work over 50 hours but actually prefer to work around 41? It's not about lacking willpower; it's all about how they allocate their time.

Modernize your marketing with AdQuick

AdQuick unlocks the benefits of Out Of Home (OOH) advertising in a way no one else has. Approaching the problem with eyes to performance, created for marketers with the engineering excellence you’ve come to expect for the internet.

Marketers agree OOH is one of the best ways for building brand awareness, reaching new customers, and reinforcing your brand message. It’s just been difficult to scale. But with AdQuick, you can easily plan, deploy and measure campaigns just as easily as digital ads, making them a no-brainer to add to your team’s toolbox.

Learn more now.

You're receiving this because you subscribed to AltLevel™ Strategist. Not yet a subscriber?

Subscribe here for your free dose of the AltLevel™ Strategist!