You Might Be Undervaluing Your “Yes”
Photo by Morgan Housel on Unsplash
TL/DR:
Overcommitting creates time debt
Time debt tends to get paid with sleep and health
Define your time non-negotiables and treat them like bills
Don’t spend your time beyond your means
The Whole Shebang:
Time is money, money is time. You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again.
But today, I want to talk instead about how time is like money.
There’s some really good, very simple, advice about money that I think has likely been given to all kids as they leave their parents’ homes and enter the workforce:
Don’t spend beyond your means!
And it’s really good advice.
If you don’t spend beyond your means, you won’t rack up debt that will only be harder to pay off later.
(And yes, I know that in this economy, and in late-stage capitalism, in a country with subpar (to say the least) social safety nets, this is easier said than done. It can be really hard to make this advice work for you if you’re working a job without a living wage. But I digress.)
And I’m going to argue that the same is true for time.
It’s not a coincidence that we use the same verbs “spend” and “save” around both time and money.
And here’s the kicker:
In some ways, it’s more important to budget your time than your money, because, while you can make more money, you can’t make more time.
In fact, it’s the only thing you can’t make more of.
Overcommitting is like spending money you don’t have.
Overcommitting puts you in time debt.
So, I want you to ask yourself a few hard questions:
Are you writing time checks you can’t cash?
Are you saying yes when you don’t have any more time to spare?
Are you trading sleep, health and wellbeing for stress, overwhelm and the pursuit of status and success?
I’m sure you’ve heard money folks say “pay yourself first”, and you can do that with time too.
Look, we all know we’ve got to pay our bills first, before discretionary spending, because if we don’t we’ll end up spending more than we have and being in debt.
Bills are the non-negotiables when it comes to your money.
But what are your non-negotiables when it comes to your time?
Build in those non-negotiables first before you commit to more, before you “spend” time you don’t have.
You can think of your non-negotiables in 2 categories: work and personal.
For me, this means:
Personal:
At least 7 hours of sleep (but I prefer 8.5)
Family dinner, most nights
Exercise, most days
Personal time for my hobbies (mostly, time at the ceramics studios)
Work:
Client sessions/engagements
Daily time to process email/messages
Daily buffer time to account for the unexpected
Think of your non-negotiables as your bills. And pay them first.
Then, spend what’s left over, but no more.
Does this mean you’ll be saying no more often?
Hell, yeah, it does!
And here are a number of ways you can do it without blowback.
But does this also mean that you’ll start feeling time affluent instead of time poor?
You better believe it!
Instead of committing to stuff you don’t have time for (spending time you don’t have), you’ll be spending within your means.
And by paying your “time bills” first, you’ll make sure that the seemingly urgent doesn’t crowd out the actually important.
You’ll stop running yourself ragged.
Will you have FOMO?
Sure, maybe a little.
But if that's the price to pay, I’ll gladly pony up.
How about you?
And if you need a little help figuring out what’s non-negotiable and making time for what’s important, here are 3 ways we can work together:
Enroll in the Time Well Spent course
Bite-sized, shame-free steps to take control of your time, and your life. Built for real people with big lives, big jobs, or both. Learn more, or enroll here.
Get 1:1 Coaching
High-touch coaching for people managers, leaders, executives and founders who need a trusted partner to streamline priorities, manage the overwhelm, and focus on what moves the needle most. Schedule a call to explore if this is the right fit for you.
Explore Team Workshops/Training
Customized workshops and trainings to help your team improve productivity without burnout and create a culture where people (actually) thrive. Schedule a call to explore if this is the right fit for you.
