It Comes Down to Knowing Who You Want to Be
Last week I wrote about the importance of spending time wisely. I shared how I was working to clear the fog to determine what things I should focus on. What should I do and not do? So, like budgeting money I decided to work on a plan for budgeting my time…enter the spread sheet.
Like money, we can choose what to spend our time on.
The difference is that with money there’s the possibility to make more, not with time. This makes spending time wisely, even more critical.
So, what did I find out about budgeting time using a spreadsheet?
What I’ve found so far is that I’ve overspent my time budget by 175 hours (2%) and I still haven’t got everything entered. It is making it very clear that I can’t do everything that I want.
This spreadsheet is allowing me to look at the big picture and see where I can move things around and/or remove things completely to fit into the limited time available.
I listened to a podcast recently that pointed out how important time is due to kids doing school at home and people working remotely. This got me to thinking about how I’ve never really separated my work and personal time. My time is all just…my life.
I think this is because growing up on a farm there wasn’t a ‘clock punching’ separation of time. In addition to that, I’ve spent most of my life self-employed which is the same. I may be doing family, community or church things throughout the day or, I may be doing work things late in the evening or on weekends.
Using the spreadsheet, it is allowing me to see the amount of time being spent rather than the specific time of the day or night. It allows me to be better at living a well-balanced life.
Ultimately the spending of our time comes down to a personal choice.
It’s all about who we want to be.
We can spend our time where we want. So…to that point…today I want to spend my time with my family having a movie marathon weekend.
That’s who I want to be.