In order to deliver the best service to their clients, financial advisors often take on responsibilities beyond giving financial advice, including compliance, marketing, team management, and other operational duties. With only so many hours in a day and demands coming from every direction, it can be challenging to prioritize the most important things for growing an advisory firm. As a result, advisors can find themselves busy all day, month, or even year without making meaningful progress on their most important goals.
A key challenge in regaining control of time is identifying exactly where the time is going. Job responsibilities often shift as firms grow and scale, with new tasks added faster than they are delegated, automated, or eliminated. Over time, this can easily lead to overwhelm – or, eventually, even burnout. While this risk can be prevalent in any role, founders and lead advisors may be particularly susceptible due to the sheer number of responsibilities they manage.
To regain control, advisors can begin by tracking their time with various software tools such as Toggl or Harvest. Many of these tools are easy to integrate into daily workflows, requiring minimal effort to log and categorize tasks. Simply recording hours worked and categorizing tasks can help advisors get a clear picture of the total hours they’re actually working, where the time is going, and how long each task takes. Over time, patterns may emerge, revealing potential opportunities to reduce inefficiencies such as task-switching and interruptions of deep work periods. Additionally, time-tracking can provide valuable qualitative insights, such as identifying which weeks felt energizing versus overwhelming – and why.
For advisors who tag and categorize their work effectively, time-tracking can yield even deeper insights. For example, they might discover they are spending significantly more time on administrative tasks than expected, suggesting a need for support staff or automation. Comparing activities against benchmarking studies (such as the Kitces Research on Advisor Productivity) can reveal additional areas for improvement. Advisors can also gain further insight using tools like the DRIP matrix (Delegate, Replace, Invest, Produce) to categorize tasks based on their energy requirements and revenue potential, helping to identify which activities to delegate, eliminate, or prioritize. This structured approach provides clarity on which tasks are most energizing and income-producing – and which are not – helping advisors realign their efforts for greater productivity and satisfaction.
Regaining control of one’s time is not a quick process. The difference between a productive advisor and one who is struggling often comes down to making small, incremental changes in how their time is managed. However, by using time-tracking software and staying committed to improvement, advisors can gain clear, actionable insights that lead to significant progress over time. And with a positive attitude and determination, even small adjustments can lead to meaningful results!
