Value Your Time More Than Money, and You'll Get More of Both

Time isn't money; it's worth much more than that. 

As Jo Wilson on Grey's Anatomy so eloquently put it, "There's always more money." She's right, you know. You can always make more money, but your time is finite. Yes, I am suggesting that money is infinite. 

I know the arguments; "I have a fixed income, so I can't make more money," "I can't afford ____ because of ____" "I'll make money my top priority so that I can eventually afford to do the things I want to." "You're crazy."

Whether you think you can or can't do something, you're absolutely right - Henry Ford

I'm not suggesting you go out and spend money you don't have, but I'm suggesting you consider both time and money from a resource perspective. Think of how much money there is floating around both digitally and in print; you're telling me that the amount you're able to receive can't supersede a certain amount? There's a certain amount you can have, but never more than that? I ain't buying.

Now time on the other hand, is fixed. You can't get more of it, end of story. What you can control is how you spend your time. You can make the most of your time, and the best way of doing so is by planning ahead.

Budget Time Like You Budget Money

Similarly to the way we use dollars to buy things, we can use our hours to 'cash in.' Find what your larger goal is, and track your time and progress towards achieving it. If your goal is happiness, then identify the things that make you happy, and allocate time to specifically do these things. I find it important to incorporate time into creating something daily, even if it's as simple as a planner layout or writing something, so I make sure no matter how busy I am that I make at least 30 minutes for this because it makes me happy. You can use the daily printout on the printables tab for an hourly tracker. 

Spend Wisely

Once you recognize the value of time, you start to reconsider what you commit yourself to. Similarly to a subscription you pay for but never use, we sometimes have things in our schedule that we keep doing simply because we aren't stopping to ask ourselves why we're doing them. I find that once you start removing things that don't make you feel happy or fulfilled in your life, you create space for better things and massively upgrade your life. 

It's ok to say no; people say "I don't want to spend the money" so it's only fair to be able to say "I don't want to spend the time." When you put yourself first, the rest tends to follow. 

Invest in Your Future

Spend time working towards a larger goal- maybe it's learning a new language, maybe it's actually taking the time to sit down and create a budget. I think of these as self-improvement hours. The cool thing is that these pay off beyond the original time commitment, similar to an investment. The return isn't necessarily more time, but it could be an a new skill, financial freedom or personal fulfillment. 

Let's make a concerted effort to treat time the way we treat money and how life changes.

xoxo,

Allison