What is worth more than all the money in the world?

I want to take a minute here to share something I tried that really opened up my eyes. I have been feeling very stressed & busy lately. I was convinced I didn’t have any spare time for what I want to do. I was too busy running around from work to coaching to the gym and back home for dinner. All I wanted to do was schedule a freaking hair appointment, but my schedule was stuffed to the brim. This happened the other day when I was trying see my chiropractor. I simply cannot fit everything in. I don’t have TIME to work on my blog. I don’t have TIME to try to change careers. My twenties are slipping away! I don’t have time for anything, and I don’t even have kids (like seriously though – how do you moms do it?).

I decided I needed to look at things a little bit more objectively and with less emotion. I decided to do some math. Yes. Math. Awful, panic-inducing math. No worries though – it’s just simple addition and subtraction.

There are 24 hours in a day. I took what hours I dedicate to the various things in my life and added them all up. I even decided to tackle one of my busiest days.

30 minutes: get ready for work/eat breakfast
30 minutes: drive work work
8 hours: work
30 minutes: drive from work to coach
1 hour: coach
20 minutes: drive from box to my regular gym
1 hour: workout
10 minutes: drive home

That is a total of almost 11 hours. So I truly do have 11 hours of the day where I am busy with things for which I have committed myself. Now, lets add in sleep. I do not function well with less than 7 hours of sleep, so that is a new total of 18 hours where I am booked.

That means there are SIX hours left. What am I doing with that time? Granted, sometimes that is spent grocery shopping, meal prepping, etc. but honestly… much of it is also used cruising Instagram or vegging out while re-watching The Office. I could make wiser use of that time. Here I am panicking that I don’t have enough time in the day to spend doing anything I want to do, but I somehow managed to find six extra hours. I then took some time to write down what I want to accomplish during these six hours, set a specific bedtime, and actually commit to getting up earlier.

Think of your time as a budget. After all – time is worth more than money. Time is why people work so much. Having time means having freedom.  I encourage you to go through the same process I did; add up all of your “busy” hours and see what you have left and effectively budget the leftovers to things you need to accomplish or things you just simply WANT to do.  This was a nice reminder that I am in control of my life, regardless of how much I think I have to give away to other engagements. You make time for what you want to make time for.

Always,