Set a Fictional Hourly Rate and Watch Your Life Change

You know, I was thinking… Naval Ravikant says to set a fictional aspirational hourly rate and run your calendar through it. That seemed bananas to me but he’s a billionaire so he must be doing something right.

You pick a number, higher than what you actually earn, high enough to make you a little uncomfortable. An aspirational number, perhaps.

Then run your whole day through that filter. Should I be mowing my lawn? At my rate, absolutely not. Should I be editing my own invoices? No. Should I be driving to Office Depot for printer paper? Not a chance.

The first time I did this, I found about eight of the ten hours in my workday were tasks sitting well below my rate. A whole workday spent on things someone else could do for $0 to $20 an hour. I was paying myself $20 an hour to avoid paying someone else $20 an hour.

Having a higher, fictional number is important. The number forces you to weigh every task against your highest-value work, and once you do, delegation stops feeling like an expense.

What’s worth my time: being on camera with a family, conducting an interview, signing someone up, designing a new product, thinking about where Heritage Films goes next. Everything else is infrastructure. Important, and not mine to build.

Naval put it this way: “If you can outsource something or not do something for less than your hourly rate, outsource it or don’t do it.”

OK that’s it. I gotta go. The eternal hypocrite in me has to do the dishes. Again, this is aspirational talk.

Heritage Films produces personal documentary films for families across the United States and the world. Your family’s story is worth more than you think. Let us show you what that looks like.