I’ve been thinking a lot about time management lately. I don’t know about you, but there are times where I feel like life is just running away from me and it’s taking everything I have just to keep up. Everything is disorganized, unkept, unfinished and I am just putting out fires as they come. It hit me a few weeks ago that this was costing me time and money and energy. I think everyone has felt like this at some point in their lives. Life just runs out of control and you are trying to keep your head above water.
The funny thing is the answer to resolve this is to stop. Just STOP. Stop trying to put out fires. Stop trying to juggle 50 millions things. Stop worrying. Just stop everything and take time to rest. It’s just like with dealing with debt. The first step in getting out of debt is to step back, stop. Think about where you want to go, make a plan (budget) and track the results. But both of these make you stop what you are currently doing, stop what you think is important for just enough time to figure out what you are going to do.
For me, this meant that once a week for an hour or two, I would relax. I hate relaxing. Even if I am sitting on the couch watching tv, I still need to be doing something else. I will have my laptop on or be playing a game on my phone; just something! Now, once a week I spending an hour or two smoking a cigar and thinking. Relaxing. Organizing all my thoughts. Figuring out what I want to do and making a plan. It has been AWESOME.
After the first time doing this, I setup a goal for that time. Part of it will be just to think and maybe write some poetry. Part of it will be thinking of what do for a side hustle. I want to come up with a new side hustle each month. It doesn’t mean that it has to be done that month, but at least get stuff started. I came up with one for September but it will not be one that I will be able to start for a while. I also came up with one for October that will be done with my wife. I’ll have more on that once we get going on it. And I have an idea for Novembers already!
Anywho, this has been awesome because now, I spend time looking over my week and seeing if I am following my goals. Time is money, money is time. If you do not have plan, you will waste both and wear yourself out.