The Most Valuable Asset Ever! (Part 3)
Image sourced by Alexander Grey @sharonmccutcheon
After my lengthy divorce, as I mentioned, I was down in the dumps. Even though my eX and I weren’t a good match (in the end) and I wanted to divorce, moving from a house of five to a house of one was rough. So Quiet! I was Sad.
My house was Littered with papers – mostly legal records and financial records. I was self-employed and work-papers covered entire sections of the fast-disappearing floor. The entire upstairs floor and a good percentage of the living room floor were Completely Covered with papers. Lamentably, we all called this the “Paper Carpet.”
Embarrassing and Disgraceful. But, sometimes life knocks us down and we get stuck in a spiral.
Thanksgiving happened to be just around the corner.
I was working with Debra, a nutritionist, who was also into holistic health.
During one session, Debra asked, “You keep mentioning that you will eliminate your paper clutter. When are you actually going to clean up and move on?”
Frankly, she was right. I needed a catalyst to get off the dime.
“By New Year’s Eve,” I blurted out. Mind you it was the end of November and the mountains of papers had been piling up over 21 months. A Tall Task for Sure!
“How do you intend to do that?” she snarked. And the session ended abruptly, leaving me wondering how in the world I would clean up the consummate mess I had created one sheet at a time. . .
My mission to save time was borne because it was the answer to eliminating my papers and cleaning up my house, and freeing my mind.
It was November 29th.
Being the accountant-type – process oriented – I craved a schedule, a roadmap to clean up the house.
When I was a banker at Citibank, we hired lawyers, outside counsel, to draft loan documents. Many of the lawyers billed in 15-minute increments. Some billed in 5- or 6-minute increments, but that seemed like overkill to me. Good work if you can get it.
I sat down at my computer to make an Excel spreadsheet.
I labeled each column with a date ― from November 29 to December 31. Of course, you’ll use the dates that are relevant to you.
I laid out the time slot in column A. Each row represented 15 minutes: 7:00, 7:15, 7:30 and so on. Twenty-four hours’ worth, ‘round the clock
Across the worksheet, each column contained a day – the date. Column B was November 29; column C, November 30 and so on.
Then, I blocked out time for daily hygiene, sleeping, eating, commuting and work.
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The open, blank cells ― also known as unassigned or free time ― were Few and Far between.
As they say, “A picture is worth 1,000 words.”
There was NO extra time. Very little free time for sure. Yikes.
Suddenly, it hit me how little time we have and how precious time really is.
They say that time is our most precious asset ― because once a day ends, it is gone forever.
Once I was able to visualize my calendar/schedule on paper, I realized how valuable time really is.
It became clear to me that the key to success is actually about managing your time to complete our key tasks and achieve our milestones on schedule.
I rearranged lots of activities, watched less TV; cooked double meals to create leftovers for another meal or three; and started multi-tasking, when the tasks weren’t that important or didn’t require concentration. For starters, I sorted papers while I watched TV.
I Nixed the unnecessary errands.
You may be thinking, “So what.” Actually. . .
While these time-saving tactics are relatively straightforward, they saved minutes!
Which added up to hours!
And that really helped me open my eyes and gain momentum and control my time – time management. And. . .
Minutes add up to hours and so on!
Putting the tips into action and developing new habits are the key.
This early success led to my examining each task I performed every day, like an engineer. And to my discovering more ways to save time, which we’ll be sharing in future Budget and Grow Rich® blog posts.
Since there are only so many hours in the day and so much time available, the key is to free up time by reducing wasted time and becoming more efficient so we have more time to focus on more productive endeavors and more important goals and objectives.
Grab these 5 action steps to save time, increase your productivity, and double your salary:
What tasks do you want to accomplish to help you achieve your goals?
Can you delegate (assign) any tasks to other people to free up time?
What tasks can you eliminate to free up time?
What tasks can you automate to free up time? One example is online banking and automatic bill pay, for example your credit cards.
Can you multitask anywhere? I’m not a big fan of multitasking because I think concentrating on more than one task at a time, reduces the focus on each task. But, for example, I will watch streaming while I handle routine administrative tasks.
One example is going to retrieve my snail mail from the Post Office. Which we shared in Part 1 of this Budget and Grow Rich® blog post series.
Since time is marching on, Let’s Go. . .
Hoping you create wheelbarrows full of free time, control, accomplishment, freedom and fun.
Oh and of course, double your salary.
Let’s get to it,
Arthur VanDam
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Disclaimer: OH and Please Remember, we are Not financial advisors, financial planners, attorneys or accountants and are Not providing any specific financial, tax, accounting or legal advice here. Be sure to conduct your own due diligence and consult your own professional advisors to get sound professional advice that’s specific to your financial and personal circumstances, risk tolerance, time horizon and investment goals and objectives among other key factors!
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