Have you ever completed a Time Audit?
“The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours.”~ Amos Tversky
How much of your time are you wasting per week at a job you don’t like? A career you’ve lost your love for?
…Just clocking up the hours mindlessly so you can go out and spend your money on useless items that keep you amused for a short while…dreaming of your next holiday, somewhere, ANYWHERE!
Why are you working so much? Do you really NEED to? Are you really more productive that way? How much of your day do you waste? Busy, busy, busy!!! Seriously, think about it.
“But I NEED to work!!” I hear you scream at the computer… sure you do, we all do – but at what price?
The problem is usually less about income and more about expenditure.
How much is your TIME worth to you?
Would life really be that horrible if you brought in $100 less income a week? Would it REALLY???
How AMAZING would those hours of TIME be instead?!?!
Time Audit Tips
- What would you RATHER be doing? Brainstorm!
- Grab a pencil and paper and draw a long horizontal line. From left to right, on a continuum write a.)What are some things you LOVE to do, b.) things you MAKE YOURSELF/”HAVE TO” do, c.) and things you DESPISE doing?
- How can you orchestrate your life so that more of your time is spent doing the the things you LOVE to do, and less on the other things?
- This part takes some serious reflection, and a little bit of bravery to cull the people, things, and parts of your life that are just wasting your time and energy.
- Be ruthless with your audit – Where are you bleeding time? In what activities are you spending copious amounts of time that you would rather be doing something else…?
- What are you going to do about it?
If everyone did a Time Audit and identified the things that they love to do – both for payment (wage) and for volunteer (love), all of our bases would be covered!
We would have people in the places they love, doing the things they love.
Final Words
Life isn’t always peachy and perfect. WE GET THAT.
The laundry still needs folded. The house still needs vacuumed. The kids still need picked up from here, there and everywhere. The dinner still needs to be made.
However, there are certain things in your life that PERHAPS you could change or do without.
Sometimes even changing the timing or pattern of your usual ways can open up new avenues, or buy you more time to do the other things you love so much.
