If you want seven extra hours every single week, take the Seven-Hour Challenge. You don’t need a 5 AM wake up time (though I highly recommend it!), to win the lottery, or a personality transplant. What you need is clarity, a calendar (or a simple reconstruction of last week), and the willingness to stop doing the wrong things. This is a practical, repeatable process to find seven hours a week—then protect them for what actually matters.

Most people say they “don’t have time.” What they really don’t have is a plan. The Seven-Hour Challenge gives you one. The goal is straightforward: free up seven hours a week and use those hours on purpose—health, deep work, faith, family, rest, or a focused project. Not someday. Now.

Step 1: Pick the point of your seven hours

Before you move blocks on a calendar, decide what these hours are for. Otherwise, you’ll free time and fill it with the next urgent thing or—if you are anything like me—you may just find yourself working more!

Take some time to answer these questions:

• What is the single priority you want more of each week? Do you want to get healthier? Spend more time with family? Or at the gym? Doing deep work? A hobby?  
• If you had one extra hour a day, how would you use it? Evaluate if you are spending enough time on your mental health, physical health, and social health (going out with friends and volunteering/giving back). If not, this would be a great use of an hour a day.

Make your list of what you would do each day if you had an extra hour.  You’ll schedule to this on purpose later. If you don’t, your reclaimed time will evaporate.

Step 2: Reconstruct your week (even if your calendar is empty)

If your calendar doesn’t show the real story—laundry, kid chauffeuring, scrolling, errands—recreate it. This takes 20–30 minutes and it’s worth every minute.

• Pull up last week’s texts, call log, photos, credit-card charges, and messages. They jog your memory.
• On paper or in a blank calendar, map the big buckets: wake/sleep, work hours, commute, meals, chores, kid logistics, workouts (or not), TV/phone time, errands, appointments, random “just this once” tasks.
• Good enough is good enough. You’re after truth, not perfection. (If you really want to keep an accurate inventory, I highly recommend you download Toggl and use it for a week. But if you are looking to save seven hours now, this will work too.)

Now label each block with one of three tags:

• Keep — high value, aligned with your goals/strengths; you want to do it.
• Change — worthwhile, but can be shortened, batched, combined, moved, or done less often.
• Cut/Delegate — doesn’t need to be done by you (or at all).

Step 3: Get things off your plate—today

Vague intentions don’t free time. Minutes do.

So make a quick three-column list after reviewing how you spend your week.

1. Don’t want to do
2. Time cost (minutes/week)
3. How it leaves your plate

Real examples:

• Grocery run – 120 mins – Order delivery instead.
• Laundry – 180 – Hire help to do laundry
• Kids’ lunches – 60 – Batch twice a week or outsource.
• Dishes -help put away – 30 – Assign to kids (yes, they can).
• Have kids fill up their own water bottles and make their own school snacks every day – 60
• Doctor, kids haircut, scheduling – 30 – Partner handles.
• One extracurricular – 180 – Cancel this season or carpool.
• Commute to work – 20 – WFH one day a week

Write the actual minutes. You’re building your seven-hour total in black and white. You’ll hit seven hours faster than you think.

Step 4: Use the value-of-time test (and stop over-valuing chores)

This is where people get stuck. They know what to cut, but they feel guilty paying for help or asking for it. Use this simple rubric.

1. Know your number
   Estimate your hourly value. If you’re salaried, divide salary by annual work hours. If you’re self-employed, use the revenue you generate in a focused hour. If that’s fuzzy, choose a conservative figure and move on.

You can also use this at work to help get things off your plate that belong on the plate of a VA, Admin, or someone else.

2. Apply the rule
   If you wouldn’t pay yourself that rate to do the task, you shouldn’t be the one doing it. That doesn’t mean every minute must be monetized. It means you stop spending your highest-value time on lowest-value work.
   
   
3. Do the comparison honestly
   Paying $25–$50/hour for help (laundry, cleaning, grocery delivery, simple admin) can unlock time for things only you can do: your health, your relationships, your deep work. Money is renewable. Time is not.
   
   I pay $100 for someone to come to my house twice a week, handle laundry, organize things, make kids lunches for the next two days, put away dishes, drop off packages, dry cleaning, etc.
   
   
4. Answer the common objections

• “I can do it faster.” Maybe. But should you? Could that same hour buy you a run, a date, or a chapter drafted?
• “It’s just one hour.” One hour, weekly, for a year = 52 hours. That’s a course, a side project, or your health back.
• “I feel indulgent.” Reframe it: you’re reallocating resources to your highest responsibilities.

Make the call, place the order, or delegate the task before you lose momentum.

Step 5: Kill continuity bias (and graduate your job)

Continuity bias says “keep doing it because I’ve always done it.” That’s not a reason. It’s a habit. Here’s how to break it without burning bridges.

I highly recommend that you do this at work to take tasks off your plate at work.

• Run the test: If I were starting fresh today, would I choose to keep this? If the answer is no, it’s a candidate for delegation or deletion.
• Graduate 20% annually: If you’re growing, ~20% of last year’s responsibilities should move to someone else so you can step into higher-value work that fits your strengths.
• Use a clean script:
  “I’ve been handling X. Starting next week, I’d like you to own it. It’s about 30 minutes/week. Here’s the checklist and the definition of done. I’ll stay close for two weeks, then you run it.”
• Try a 30-day trial:
  “Let’s move X off my plate for 30 days. If quality slips, I’ll take a piece back. Otherwise we keep it.”

Expect a little friction from yourself. That’s normal. It’s not laziness to stop doing the wrong work; it’s leadership.

Step 6: Protect your strengths; prune the rest

Ask two questions:

• What am I uniquely good at OR energized by?
• What am I not good at OR drained by?

Keep more of the first category; aggressively prune the second.

As an example, I walk my kids to school every morning. It takes about 40 minutes for me to walk there and back. I could easily “find” about 150 minutes a week (2.5 hours!) just by driving or having someone else drive them. But I enjoy walking them. The exercise is good for us. The fresh air is good for us. And I get to spend some time talking to them and socializing with other parents. So while I feasibly could eliminate this “unnecessary” task, I keep it because it energizes me and is good for my kids.

I am not energized by most of my kids sports. I dislike commuting, practices, etc. So I try to delegate as much as possible to my husband, parents, or nanny. This season, we just cut soccer altogether.

Step 7: Lock in the seven hours so they don’t vanish

If you don’t schedule your reclaimed time, it will be eaten by noise.

• Block it now for the next four weeks. Name the blocks for your Step 0 priority (Workout, Deep Work, Writing, Date Night, Quiet Time).
• Automate what you can (delivery, recurring tasks, auto-pay).
• Delegate with specifics (who, what, when, how long, definition of done).
• Put small guardrails in place: meeting caps, default 45-minute meetings, email windows, one screen-free evening.

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Sample Seven-Hour Plan (realistic)

• Grocery delivery replaces store trips: +90 minutes
• Three 60-minute meetings → 45 minutes: +45 minutes
• Laundry – outsourced: +150 minutes
• Cancel one kid activity / set carpool: +120 minutes
• Dishes to kids: +60 minutes
• Combine podcast/webinar with strength training: +60 minutes
  Total: 525 minutes = 8.75 hours/week (and you will still find more)

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Troubleshooting

• “My partner doesn’t help.” Ask directly with a clear estimate and cadence: “Can you take pediatrician scheduling and Friday pickups? It’s ~30 minutes/week total.” Most partners step up when asked specifically.
• “My kids are young.” Great. Start with tiny jobs: toy pickup, table wipe, laundry sort—praise heavily. They’ll surprise you (and yes, $2 moves mountains).
• “I feel bad cutting things.” You’re not quitting life. You’re choosing the best use of limited hours. The fastest way to do something is not to do it.

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Quick Checklist

• Choose the purpose of your seven hours
• Reconstruct last week (texts/charges/photos) and tag Keep / Change / Cut
• Make the three-column off-your-plate list
• Run the value-of-time test and act (hire, order, delegate)
• Break continuity bias with a script or 30-day trial
• Block the reclaimed hours for four weeks and set guardrails
• Re-run the Seven-Hour Challenge monthly

Use this now, not when life “slows down.” Life doesn’t slow down. You choose, in minutes, what your life is going to be full of. That’s the Seven-Hour Challenge.