How to be more intentional about how you spend your time, energy and money!
My best Backpocket Strategy for the new year is to be proactive about how you spend your time, energy and money at work and at home. You don't have to feel like a rat on a wheel every day or like you don't have the time or energy to get "everything" accomplished. This week’s 22 minute podcast spells out my 6 best practices for taking control of your time, energy and money so you can tackle what matters most to you.
Listen to the 22 minute podcast here. I walk you through my 6 steps to take control of your time, energy and money at work and at home. I walk you through these steps that lead you to feeling more in control, more proactive about what you choose to spend your time, energy and money on.
So many of my clients (and colleagues for that matter) complain about how little time or energy they have. In my 25+ years of experience working with corporate and freelance professionals it’s never stopped being the main frustration of most working human beings!
I have come up with a straightforward and practical way to help you figure out how to take a more proactive stance on how you choose to spend your time, energy and money- knowing full well how hard it is to simply start! The exercise I suggest is not difficult at all, it just takes a moment of quiet to execute. Once you commit to giving yourself the time to think about this, you will be so happy to see your results almost immediately!
On my resources page on my website you can find the helpful PDF’s I talk about in my podcast this week. The code is “backpocket” to access them for free.
Here are my 6 best practices for the healthiest, most sustainable and productive way to spend your time, energy and money on what matters most to you!
Chose to be proactive. Stop making excuses and start acknowledging that you have more time than you think. We choose to spend our time on what matters to us. It’s that simple. The comedian Jim Gaffigan says “It’s really hard to find the time to work out when you really don’t want to. “ mic drop. It’s on you to admit to yourself that you aren’t doing stuff you really don’t want to do- it’s NOT because you are too busy.
Write it down. Write it down. Write it down. I say this 3 times because you need to write stuff down at 3 different times to save time, energy and money. Write it down to clarify expectations with anyone you are working with. Write it down to clarify details about the project so everyone involved is on the same page about the perimeters of the project. Write it down to clarify the ways you will all communicate about the project, throughout the project. In the podcast I give fantastic real life examples about how writing it down saved me, my clients and my friends hours and hours of frustration, time and money!
Know your Peak Energy Time of day. And then do your most difficult, revenue generating tasks during your peak energy time of day. In my podcast I explain in detail how this works so effectively. Working during your low energy time of day is the most ineffective way to work due to the Law of Diminishing Returns. Working on the toughest stuff when you are firing on all cylinders means you get stuff done faster AND with better output because you are focused and cognitively alert.
Set a timer for 45 minutes. During these 45 minutes do a task without any interruptions and watch how much you get done. Focus for just 45 minutes without allowing phone, email notifications, humans or dogs to interrupt you and you will be shocked at your output! My clients who actually do this are consistently thrilled with how much they are able to accomplish. It really works. We tend to over and under estimate how much time things take, whether it’s fun stuff or tedious stuff. Set your timer for the good, the bad and the ugly and you will feel so powerful and productive!
Track your time. Track your Energy. Track Your Money. When we don’t know where our money is going, we do a budget. When we don’t know why our pants are tight, we do a food journal. So when we are always busy and we never have time to do what we want to do, we must do a Time Diary exercise. Before you freak out, turn my podcast off or tell yourself that this is bullshit- you are only hurting yourself! My clients who procrastinate and dread doing this exercise always end up being pleasantly surprised by how obvious the lessons jump out at them. I never look at the results of any client’s exercise because that is not the point. The point is for my clients to see the patterns for themselves and decide where they can make slight adjustments to gaining more control over their busy schedules. Inevitably, it’s a “Kathy you were right” situation and I LOVE that! My Time Diary Exercise
Get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. We now know that sleep deprivation causes devastating mental and physical side effects. In this week’s podcast I give you suggestions for making it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep for 8 hours. Most commonly overlooked is the idea of black out curtains and no light coming into the bedroom. You would be surprised at how many people have the street lights or bedside lights on that prevent our brain from shutting completely off. Other proven tips for good uninterrupted sleep are: keep the room at 65 degrees or below, no devices at all 60 minutes before bedtime, an alarm that wakes you up with light, not an abrasive alarm sound and last but not least, don’t check your phone first thing in the morning or the last thing at night before you go to bed!
There you have it! My most helpful strategy for you to feel more in control of how you spend your time, energy and money at work and at home.
My podcasts are intended to give you optimism, strategy and confidence to put #inyourbackpocket