Your hourly rate applies to admin hours too

The free-hours misconception

Evening admin feels free because there's no invoice against it. But economically, every admin hour is an hour you're not billing, not acquiring, or not resting. Counted at your own rate, ten hours of admin a week is over €30,000 a year.

The most expensive admin employee around

That's you. A tradesperson with years of experience retyping invoices and sending confirmation emails — work that requires no craft. No one would knowingly put their most expensive worker on their simplest work. Yet that's exactly what happens every evening.

What to do about it

Step one is to measure: how many admin hours do you really do? Step two is to devalue that work: automate what's predictable, so your hours go back to your rate. The goal isn't to work harder — it's to take your own time seriously.

The time-leak scan converts your admin hours into euros. Four minutes, bracing yourself is allowed.